Russia warns tensions could spill into World War 3

Russia's diplomacy with the West is in crisis management mode and is focused on trying to ensure that tensions do not spill over into a large-scale conflict, a top diplomat said this morning. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned in an interview with the TASS news agency that security guarantees which Russia had sought and discussed with the West in 2021 were no longer relevant and that Moscow had no trust in the NATO military alliance.

'(NATO) continues the manic advance of the alliance towards new frontiers... they are literally ready to balance on the brink of a direct armed conflict with us,' he said.

'We warn that they are playing with fire. (The US) have long been in a state of proxy war with the Russian Federation. 

'They somehow cannot understand that they are approaching a phase when it will be very difficult to manage what is happening and a landslide crisis.

'Diplomacy in this direction is working, I would say, in crisis management mode and in... preventing a slide to a really large-scale conflict,' he concluded. 

Meanwhile, Russian troops continue to seize territory in eastern Ukraine, forcing thousands in Kharkiv to flee their homes after Moscow launched another ground invasion in the region.

In Kyiv on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington had 'not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine, but ultimately Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it's going to conduct this war'.