VLAD WHO?

"I don't consider the situation now more tense than before. There is a feeling abroad that there is war here. That's not the case," he said January 28. "I am not saying an escalation is not possible...[but] we don't need this panic."

In recent weeks, a number of U.S. officials have made sometimes dire warnings that Russia planned to launch a new invasion of Ukraine. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki earlier this week said that an invasion was "imminent."

Ukrainian officials have made notably different statements in an attempt to downplay an immediate threat.

"Are there tanks driving on our streets? No," Zelenskiy said. "But if you are not here, that's the sense you are getting in England, Germany, France, in Lithuania.... The impression you are getting from the media is that there is a war going on here, that soldiers are marching down our streets, that a mobilization has been declared, that people are going somewhere. That's not the case. We don't need this panic."

Tweet   @brothersjudd