President Vladimir Putin will deliver a state-of-the-nation speech to Russians on Wednesday as supporters of his fiercest critic, Alexei&nbsp;Navalny, plan nationwide protests over his deteriorating health in jail.

Putin, who makes a point of never uttering&nbsp;Navalny's name, has said his speech to both houses of parliament will focus on projects to boost economic growth, which has been hit by foreign sanctions, low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic.

But as he starts his address at noon (0900 GMT), demonstrators in the far east port of Vladivostok are due to take to the streets in the first of a wave of rolling protests across Russia in support of the 44-year-old&nbsp;Navalny, gravely weakened by a three-week hunger strike.

Both sides are braced for a showdown. Previous rallies in support of&nbsp;Navalny&nbsp;have been broken up by force, with thousands of arrests, and authorities have said Wednesday's gatherings will be illegal.

The trial of strength will be closely watched abroad, at a time of deep crisis in Russia's relations with the West over its treatment of&nbsp;Navalny, a major build-up of troops on the Ukrainian border and a rash of other issues that led Washington to impose new sanctions on Moscow last week, and the Kremlin to respond in kind.

Navalny, who survived a nerve agent poisoning last year that Russia denies carrying out, was sentenced in February to 2-1/2 years for parole violations related to an embezzlement case that he says was politically motivated.

He went on hunger strike on March 31 over what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to provide him with adequate treatment for acute leg and back pain. Officials say he has received normal medical care, as would any other convict.

Navalny's supporters have called for what they hope will be the biggest protests in modern Russian history, saying his life is hanging by a thread and demanding he receives proper medical attention.

On the eve of the protests, monitoring group OVD-Info reported police raids at&nbsp;Navalny's regional offices in the cities of Krasnodar and Kurgan, and arrests of individual activists in about a dozen cities.&nbsp;Navalny's team has said protests will be held in more than 100 cities and towns.

The venue for Putin's address, the Manege exhibition hall adjacent to the Kremlin, stands on the square&nbsp;Navalny's allies have designated as the location of their rally in Moscow on Wednesday evening.

President Vladimir Putin will deliver a state-of-the-nation speech to Russians on Wednesday as supporters of his fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, plan nationwide protests over his deteriorating health in jail.

President Vladimir Putin will deliver a state-of-the-nation speech to Russians on Wednesday as supporters of his fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, plan nationwide protests over his deteriorating health in jail. Putin, who makes a point of never uttering Navalny's name, has said his speech to both houses of parliament will focus on projects to boost economic growth, which has been hit by foreign sanctions, low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. But as he starts his address at noon (0900 GMT), demonstrators in the far east port of Vladivostok are due to take to the streets in the first of a wave of rolling protests across Russia in support of the 44-year-old Navalny, gravely weakened by a three-week hunger strike. Both sides are braced for a showdown. Previous rallies in support of Navalny have been broken up by force, with thousands of arrests, and authorities have said Wednesday's gatherings will be illegal. The trial of strength will be closely watched abroad, at a time of deep crisis in Russia's relations with the West over its treatment of Navalny, a major build-up of troops on the Ukrainian border and a rash of other issues that led Washington to impose new sanctions on Moscow last week, and the Kremlin to respond in kind. Navalny, who survived a nerve agent poisoning last year that Russia denies carrying out, was sentenced in February to 2-1/2 years for parole violations related to an embezzlement case that he says was politically motivated. He went on hunger strike on March 31 over what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to provide him with adequate treatment for acute leg and back pain. Officials say he has received normal medical care, as would any other convict. Navalny's supporters have called for what they hope will be the biggest protests in modern Russian history, saying his life is hanging by a thread and demanding he receives proper medical attention. On the eve of the protests, monitoring group OVD-Info reported police raids at Navalny's regional offices in the cities of Krasnodar and Kurgan, and arrests of individual activists in about a dozen cities. Navalny's team has said protests will be held in more than 100 cities and towns. The venue for Putin's address, the Manege exhibition hall adjacent to the Kremlin, stands on the square Navalny's allies have designated as the location of their rally in Moscow on Wednesday evening.

Navalny supporters seek to drown out Putin speech with mass protests

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to lower tensions on the Ukrainian border and suggested they hold their first summit.

The White House and the Kremlin reported only the second conversation between the two since Biden took office in January. Western officials urged Moscow to end the build-up and Russia, in words recalling the Cold War, said its "adversary" should keep US&nbsp;warships well away from the Crimea region.

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Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and fighting has increased in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have battled Russian-backed separatists in a seven-year conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people.

In a sign of concern about tensions spinning out of control in the Ukraine crisis, Biden phoned Putin to propose they meet in a third country while underlining US&nbsp;commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"President Biden also made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia's actions, such as cyber intrusions and election interference," the White House said in a statement.

"The president voiced our concerns over the sudden Russian military build-up in occupied Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders, and called on Russia to de-escalate tensions," it said.

In the first public Russian description of the build-up, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had moved two armies and three paratrooper units to its western border as part of a large snap drill meant to test combat readiness and respond to what he called threatening military action by NATO.

Shoigu said on state TV that the three-week exercise, which he called successful, was due to wrap up in the next two weeks.

Shoigu said NATO was deploying 40,000 troops and 15,000 pieces of military equipment near Russia's borders, mainly in the Black Sea and the Baltic regions.

The Western alliance denies any such plans.

A senior U.S. State Department official told reporters: "We know Russia's capacity. This enormous build-up that they've made militarily ... to take aggressive action, but we don't know their intentions obviously," the official said.

Russia has regularly accused NATO of destabilizing Europe with its troop reinforcements in the Baltics and Poland since the annexation of Crimea.

Two US&nbsp;warships are due to arrive in the Black Sea this week in response to what U.S. and NATO officials say is the largest massing of Russian forces - with thousands of combat-ready troops - since Moscow seized Crimea from Ukraine.

"We warn the United States that it will be better for them to stay far away from Crimea and our Black Sea coast," Ryabkov said. "It will be for their own good. He called the US&nbsp;deployment a provocation designed to test Russian nerves.

Blinken met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Brussels after Group of Seven foreign ministers condemned what they said was the unexplained rise in Russian troop numbers.

Echoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who met Kuleba earlier, Blinken said Moscow's military actions on Ukraine's doorstep were "very provocative".

"Russia must end this military build-up in and around Ukraine, stop its provocations and de-escalate immediately," Stoltenberg said at a news conference with Kuleba.

Kyiv has welcomed the show of Western support, but it falls short of Ukraine's desire for full membership of NATO.

Kuleba said Kyiv wanted a diplomatic solution, though he also appealed for further economic sanctions against Moscow and more military assistance to Ukraine.

Separately, two diplomats said Stoltenberg would chair a video conference with allied defense and foreign ministers on Wednesday. Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were to be present at NATO headquarters to brief the other 29 allies on Ukraine, as well as on Afghanistan, the diplomats said.

In contrast to former president Donald Trump's reluctance to criticize Putin, Biden came into office in January openly attacking what he says is the Kremlin's meddling in US elections, &nbsp;mounting of a huge cyber attack last year, and the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Biden said in a March interview that he agreed Putin is a "killer."

The White House has promised retaliatory actions but has yet to make public any details.

In a surprise move Tuesday, Biden also used the call to suggest a summit with Putin somewhere other than in the United States or Russia.

"President Biden reaffirmed his goal of building a stable and predictable relationship with Russia consistent with US interests, and proposed a summit meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia," the White House statement said.

Putin similarly held a summit in Finland in 2018 with Trump, who caused a furor at home by appearing to ignore his own intelligence community's assessment and to accept the Russian leader's denials of election meddling.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the summit was being proposed for "the coming months," which would mean "this summer."

However, she expressed US skepticism over how much could be achieved in relations with Putin's Russia.

"What we're working toward is predictable and stable. We're not looking for an establishment of trust as much as a predictability and stability," she told reporters.

Moscow earlier Tuesday responded to criticism of its troop deployments by saying they were "training exercises" and said Russia felt threatened by the western NATO alliance.

In its readout of the Biden-Putin call, the Kremlin said "both sides expressed their readiness to continue dialogue on the most important areas of ensuring global security."

It also said that Biden proposed a summit "in the near future" but did not say whether the idea had been accepted.

Amid fears in Ukraine that Russia could launch a large-scale assault, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met in Brussels with top officials of NATO nations including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who voiced his strong support for Kiev.

(With input from agencies)

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to lower tensions on the Ukrainian border and suggested they hold their first summit.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to lower tensions on the Ukrainian border and suggested they hold their first summit. The White House and the Kremlin reported only the second conversation between the two since Biden took office in January. Western officials urged Moscow to end the build-up and Russia, in words recalling the Cold War, said its "adversary" should keep US warships well away from the Crimea region. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and fighting has increased in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have battled Russian-backed separatists in a seven-year conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people. In a sign of concern about tensions spinning out of control in the Ukraine crisis, Biden phoned Putin to propose they meet in a third country while underlining US commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. "President Biden also made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia's actions, such as cyber intrusions and election interference," the White House said in a statement. "The president voiced our concerns over the sudden Russian military build-up in occupied Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders, and called on Russia to de-escalate tensions," it said. In the first public Russian description of the build-up, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had moved two armies and three paratrooper units to its western border as part of a large snap drill meant to test combat readiness and respond to what he called threatening military action by NATO. Shoigu said on state TV that the three-week exercise, which he called successful, was due to wrap up in the next two weeks. Shoigu said NATO was deploying 40,000 troops and 15,000 pieces of military equipment near Russia's borders, mainly in the Black Sea and the Baltic regions. The Western alliance denies any such plans. A senior U.S. State Department official told reporters: "We know Russia's capacity. This enormous build-up that they've made militarily ... to take aggressive action, but we don't know their intentions obviously," the official said. Russia has regularly accused NATO of destabilizing Europe with its troop reinforcements in the Baltics and Poland since the annexation of Crimea. Two US warships are due to arrive in the Black Sea this week in response to what U.S. and NATO officials say is the largest massing of Russian forces - with thousands of combat-ready troops - since Moscow seized Crimea from Ukraine. "We warn the United States that it will be better for them to stay far away from Crimea and our Black Sea coast," Ryabkov said. "It will be for their own good. He called the US deployment a provocation designed to test Russian nerves. Blinken met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Brussels after Group of Seven foreign ministers condemned what they said was the unexplained rise in Russian troop numbers. Echoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who met Kuleba earlier, Blinken said Moscow's military actions on Ukraine's doorstep were "very provocative". "Russia must end this military build-up in and around Ukraine, stop its provocations and de-escalate immediately," Stoltenberg said at a news conference with Kuleba. Kyiv has welcomed the show of Western support, but it falls short of Ukraine's desire for full membership of NATO. Kuleba said Kyiv wanted a diplomatic solution, though he also appealed for further economic sanctions against Moscow and more military assistance to Ukraine. Separately, two diplomats said Stoltenberg would chair a video conference with allied defense and foreign ministers on Wednesday. Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were to be present at NATO headquarters to brief the other 29 allies on Ukraine, as well as on Afghanistan, the diplomats said. In contrast to former president Donald Trump's reluctance to criticize Putin, Biden came into office in January openly attacking what he says is the Kremlin's meddling in US elections, mounting of a huge cyber attack last year, and the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Biden said in a March interview that he agreed Putin is a "killer." The White House has promised retaliatory actions but has yet to make public any details. In a surprise move Tuesday, Biden also used the call to suggest a summit with Putin somewhere other than in the United States or Russia. "President Biden reaffirmed his goal of building a stable and predictable relationship with Russia consistent with US interests, and proposed a summit meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia," the White House statement said. Putin similarly held a summit in Finland in 2018 with Trump, who caused a furor at home by appearing to ignore his own intelligence community's assessment and to accept the Russian leader's denials of election meddling. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the summit was being proposed for "the coming months," which would mean "this summer." However, she expressed US skepticism over how much could be achieved in relations with Putin's Russia. "What we're working toward is predictable and stable. We're not looking for an establishment of trust as much as a predictability and stability," she told reporters. Moscow earlier Tuesday responded to criticism of its troop deployments by saying they were "training exercises" and said Russia felt threatened by the western NATO alliance. In its readout of the Biden-Putin call, the Kremlin said "both sides expressed their readiness to continue dialogue on the most important areas of ensuring global security." It also said that Biden proposed a summit "in the near future" but did not say whether the idea had been accepted. Amid fears in Ukraine that Russia could launch a large-scale assault, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met in Brussels with top officials of NATO nations including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who voiced his strong support for Kiev. (With input from agencies)

Biden tells Putin to ease tensions on Ukrainian border, proposes summit

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday he could not rule out a full-scale Russian invasion after the military reported the worst violence in the pro-Moscow separatist east for a year. 
 
Military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said insurgent attacks had doubled from the previous day as tensions between Kiev and Moscow soared over Kremlin charges last week that Ukraine plotted to stage armed incursions into Russian-annexed Crimea. 
 
&quot;The last time we witnessed a similar intensity of fire using heavy armaments was a year ago,&quot; he told reporters in Kiev. 
 
Poroshenko responded to the violence by sending his top army commander into the conflict zone, and warned that he could &quot;not exclude a full-scale Russian invasion (of Ukraine) along all fronts&quot;. 
 
&quot;The likelihood of the conflict&#39;s escalation remains very high,&quot; the Ukrainian leader said in televised remarks from the western city of Lviv. 
 
Poroshenko added that a further escalation may force him to introduce &quot;martial law and a mobilisation&quot; of reserve forces. 
 
Moscow did not immediately respond to Poroshenko&#39;s comments. 
 
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of trying to escalate a 28-month conflict in the country&#39;s rust belt that has claimed more than 9,500 lives and began just weeks after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014. 
 
(AFP) 
&nbsp;

'The likelihood of the conflict's escalation remains very high,' he said in televised remarks

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday he could not rule out a full-scale Russian invasion after the military reported the worst violence in the pro-Moscow separatist east for a year. Military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said insurgent attacks had doubled from the previous day as tensions between Kiev and Moscow soared over Kremlin charges last week that Ukraine plotted to stage armed incursions into Russian-annexed Crimea. "The last time we witnessed a similar intensity of fire using heavy armaments was a year ago," he told reporters in Kiev. Poroshenko responded to the violence by sending his top army commander into the conflict zone, and warned that he could "not exclude a full-scale Russian invasion (of Ukraine) along all fronts". "The likelihood of the conflict's escalation remains very high," the Ukrainian leader said in televised remarks from the western city of Lviv. Poroshenko added that a further escalation may force him to introduce "martial law and a mobilisation" of reserve forces. Moscow did not immediately respond to Poroshenko's comments. Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of trying to escalate a 28-month conflict in the country's rust belt that has claimed more than 9,500 lives and began just weeks after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014. (AFP)

Ukraine President Poroshenko warns of 'full-scale Russian invasion'