'Russia has no plans to invade Ukraine or any other country,' says Moscow's ambassador to the EU

There is mounting tension over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Euronews' Efi Koutsokosta met with the Kremlin's top diplomat to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, to quiz him on Moscow's plans in the region.

Efi Koutsokosta, Euronews: "Is Russia ready to invade Ukraine or is it all a bluff?"

Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU: "It's not an issue of readiness. Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country. It's a bluff created not in Russia, but in those countries that are now spreading this hysterical message, I would say, across Europe and the world."

Euronews: "Hysterical message, you said. But it's a fact that Russia was the first to deploy offensive weapons and systems within striking distance from Ukraine. If this is not a direct challenge of the country's sovereignty, what is?"

Chizhov: "You will be surprised how many offensive weapons NATO has deployed along Russian borders. Not to say of military bases and so on. And I would even add to that, as a point of statistics that the number of overflights along Russian borders in the Black Sea region, for example, last year increased by 60 per cent."

Euronews: "You see a severe threat to your security by NATO doing this, but you did that. You amassed thousands of troops near the Ukrainian border. What is at stake for Russia now?"

Chizhov: "The stake for Russia is Russian national security. That is the reason why Russia has put forward an initiative in the form of draft agreements with the United States and with NATO countries that would actually put on paper in a legally binding form a number of commitments that had been agreed throughout the last 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, when, in those days NATO promised not to expand