Translation: “Defense Minister Shoigu: American PMCs are preparing a provocation with chemical weapons in Donbass ... ‘Tanks with unidentified chemical components have been delivered to the cities of Avdiivka and Krasny Liman to commit provocations,’ he said at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry board with the participation of President Vladimir Putin” https://ria.ru/20211221/ukraina-1764715058.html
“Vladimir Putin has said he will consider a military response if Russia feels threatened by Nato ... ‘What the United States is doing in Ukraine is at our doorstep,’ he said of Washington’s support for Kyiv. ‘And they should understand that we have nowhere further to retreat to. Under [US] protection, they are arming and urging on extremists from a neighbouring country at Russia. Against Crimea, for instance. Do they think we’ll just watch idly?’ ... Russia has made it clear that an attack is on the table ... ‘If our western counterparts continue a clearly aggressive line, we will undertake proportionate military-technical countermeasures and will respond firmly to unfriendly steps,’ Putin said in televised remarks. ‘I would like to stress that we are fully entitled to do that’ ... Putin railed at Nato’s expansion and accused western powers of supporting terrorists and separatists in Chechnya ... ‘What’s happening now, this tension in Europe, is their fault,’ Putin said. ‘At every step Russia has been forced to respond, the situation has got worse and worse and worse’ … ‘And now we’re in a situation where we must make a decision. We can’t allow the situation I’ve described to develop any further’” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...itary-response-to-aggressive-nato-russia
“When the US intelligence community first picked up signs in the fall that Russia could be preparing a new attack on Ukraine, President Joe Biden directed his administration to act -- and fast ... Biden directed his national security team to use every tool possible to try to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin while a possible invasion was still assessed to be several months away, a senior US official told CNN. ‘What we have been doing is very calculated,’ the official said. ‘But we only have about a four-week window from now’ to pull it off, he added ... former senior NATO official ... ‘The forces he is amassing are exactly the forces you would amass if you were preparing for an all-out land invasion of the country’” https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/19/politics/joe-biden-russia-ukraine-obama-2014/
“Russia has stoked further tensions with its European neighbors when its national hockey team took the ice against Finland sporting Soviet-era jerseys. Finland’s former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said he was ‘surprised’ and ‘disappointed’ with Russia’s move during the Euro Hockey Tour’s Channel One Cup in Moscow over the weekend, calling the display ‘an offensive gesture’ ... jerseys sporting the letters CCCP, or USSR, across the chest.” https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/21/russias-hockey-team-sports-soviet-uniforms-riling-/
Note that like Ukraine, Finland is also an Eastern European country bordering Russia which is on the path to NATO membership. Should Russia some day conquer Ukraine, Moscow may next seek to adjust its relationship with Finland, having at least indirectly intimidated it, compelling it to distance itself from NATO and to instead gradually realign to Russia, joining Moscow’s sphere of influence.
