Russia and Belarus are scheduled to begin ten days of joint military exercises as concerns grow about Russia's deployment of forces around Ukraine's borders.

According to Nato, Russia's largest deployment to ex-Soviet Belarus since the Cold War is during the joint drills.

The White House characterized the drills as "escalators" of tensions over Ukraine.

Despite amassing more than 100,000 troops on the border, Russia has repeatedly denied attacking Ukraine.

However, some Western nations, notably the United States, have warned that a Russian attack may occur at any time.

On Thursday, diplomats from across Europe are due to hold discussions to resolve the crisis.

Russia captured Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014. Since then, eastern Ukraine has been embroiled in a protracted struggle, with Russian-backed rebels controlling large swaths of land and at least 14,000 people killed.

The drills with Belarus are scheduled to involve some 30,000 Russian troops.

Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus's president, is a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. When massive protests erupted in Belarus in 2020, the Kremlin-backed Mr. Lukashenko, while most Western countries applied sanctions and refused to recognize election results widely considered to have been falsified in his favor.

A Kremlin spokeswoman called the combined exercises serious, noting that Russia and Belarus were "confronted with unprecedented threats."

However, Russia's EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, told the BBC that his country remained hopeful that dialogue might help de-escalate the Ukraine conflict. He stated that following the drills, Russian forces now stationed in Belarus would return to their permanent posts.

"As we look at the preparation for these military exercises, again, we see this as certainly more an escalatory and not a de-escalatory action." White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that settling the crisis would resume as early as Thursday and include Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany, collectively referred to as the Normandy quartet.

Mr. Macron told reporters on Wednesday that Mr. Putin had promised him that Russian soldiers would not escalate the issue, but Russia denied making such a pledge.

Following two days of rigorous diplomacy led by Mr. Macron, there is some indication that a renewed emphasis on the so-called Minsk agreements - which tried to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine - could serve as a springboard for defusing the current crisis.

In 2014-2015, Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany approved the accords.

According to some diplomats, the accords may provide a path for de-escalation, with France's ambassador to the United States, Philippe Etienne, stating that they should be used to "build a viable political solution."

On Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet with Baltic leaders in Berlin.

"The task is that we ensure the security in Europe, and I believe that that will be achieved," he said Wednesday during a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, is scheduled to visit Brussels and Warsaw on Thursday supporting NATO allies.

Mr. Johnson's visit is part of a diplomatic frenzy, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace scheduled to see their Russian colleagues in Moscow on Thursday.

Ms. Truss stated ahead of her first travel to Russia in four years that she was resolved to advocate for Ukraine's freedom and democracy and would push Moscow to find a diplomatic solution.

Moscow has consistently blamed the increasing tensions in Ukraine on what it refers to as "the Anglo-Saxon nations."

Additionally, it characterized the UK's assertions that the Kremlin was plotting the installation of a pro-Russian puppet administration in Ukraine as hysteria.