The EU, as Ukraine's immediate neighbour, is following the situation in the country very closely. This is how the European Commission commented on the Financial Times article, which said that some EU countries initially treated with scepticism the US warnings that Russia was going to "invade" Ukraine,

"Although we do not comment on the various speculations in the media when it comes to the issue of Russian military build-up around Ukraine, we take this very seriously and we have already stated in the last few weeks that we have and are receiving very worrying information,"- said European Commission spokesman Peter Stano.

"Our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is firm and unwavering,"- Stano added. He said that since the previous build-up of Russian military forces near the Ukrainian border in the spring of this year, the EU had been exploring ways to make Ukraine more resilient in the event of further escalation. The association also continues to coordinate closely with transatlantic partners and other like-minded actors. "The information we have gathered so far regarding Russia's military build-up is of serious concern,"- Stano stressed.

The spokesman recalled that the topic of the Russian "invasion" of Ukraine was discussed by EC head Ursula von der Leyen and US President Joe Biden in Washington on 10 November and by European Council President Charles Michel with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. European diplomacy chief Josep Borrell also touched upon the topic with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitriy Kuleba, as well as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Larvov, on the margins of the OSCE ministerial meeting in Stockholm in early December.

"This issue was also on the agenda of the NATO ministerial meeting and will be discussed next week by EU foreign ministers. The European Union has been very clear about our firm support for Ukraine in the face of any new aggression that would have serious consequences,"- Stano concluded.

The Financial Times earlier reported, citing sources, that some EU countries were at first sceptical of US warnings that Russia was about to "invade" Ukraine.

"Many allies were not convinced that serious things were happening," one of the newspaper's interlocutors said. - "We were surprised by this difference in intelligence - how and why the US was seeing what we were not seeing.

As a result, Washington had to go on an unusually wide intelligence disclosure to convince allies in Europe of its point of view, the Financial Times wrote. The disclosures began in early November, ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at which Ukraine was mainly discussed.