Russia says it caught US submarine in its waters while blasting Western 'provocation' – hours after invasion warning

Ukraine crisis on the brink: Russia says it caught US submarine in its waters and 'drove it out' while blasting Western 'provocation' as Biden holds phone call with Putin and airlines stop flights to Kiev – hours after invasion warning

By LAURENCE DOLLIMORE and CHRIS JEWERS and NICK CRAVEN IN KIEV FOR MAILONLINE

The Russian military said today it caught a US submarine in its far-east waters and drove it out with 'appropriate  means' after the vessel ignored a Russian request to leave, Interfax news agency has reported. 

The encounter came as Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden held a high-stakes phone call, as a tense world watched and worried that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin as soon as Wednesday.

Biden warned his Kremlin counterpart that the United States 'will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia' should it invade Ukraine, but the call brought no major change in the standoff over Russian troops massing near Ukraine, a senior US official said.

According to a readout from the White House, Biden stressed that 'while the United States remains prepared to engage in diplomacy, in full coordination with our Allies and partners, we are equally prepared for other scenarios.'

Kremlin officials have blasted the US, calling the warnings 'provocation', and gave little away after the high-stakes phone call between the two presidents. An aide to the Russian President claimed ‘hysteria has reached its peak’.

Yury Ushakov complained about the US claims of an imminent invasion saying that Americans even released ‘the date of the Russian invasion’.

‘We don't understand false information about our intentions is passed to the media,’ he told reporters.

He said that Putin once again complained that the West has been arming Ukraine and that Kyiv authorities have been ‘sabotaging’ Western-brokered peace agreements to end a years-long conflict in eastern Ukraine.   

Meanwhile, Dutch airline KLM announced that it had suspended flights to Ukraine following a 'red alert' travel advisory placed on the country.

Citing the Russian defence ministry, Interfax reported that the US submarine was detected near the Pacific Kuril islands as Russia conducted naval exercises with its Pacific Fleet. It was ordered to surface immediately.

It said the order was ignored by the U.S. submarine's crew, leading the crew of Russia's Marshal Shaposhnikov frigate to use unspecified 'corresponding means' to make the vessel leave.

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