February 17 news on the Ukraine-Russia border crisis

But the sanctions bill stalled after Republicans and Democrats could not agree on several key points including whether to impose sanctions before a Russian invasion of Ukraine and how to handle the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline.Sen. Jim Risch, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, killed the last shreds of hope left for a bipartisan agreement on sanctions earlier in the week when he introduced his Republican-only Russia sanctions bill, the Never Yielding Europe's Territory (NYET) Act.Earlier Thursday: President Biden warned that he believed an attack would happen "within the next several days."Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a stop at the UN Security Council before heading to Munich to warn them that Russia was laying the groundwork to justify starting a war and preparing to launch an attack on Ukraine in the coming days.The Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Thursday that there have been no discussions of bringing the Senate back from their scheduled recess if Russia invades Ukraine.“Nobody’s talked about that,” said Durbin, when asked if there’s any indication if Russia does choose to invade whether they’d bring the Senate back into session.From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Veronica Stracqualursi, Kylie Atwood and Ellie KaufmanAt a tense United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia is laying the groundwork to launch an attack on Ukraine and justify starting a war. The United States' top diplomat noted that he was offering intelligence about Russia's plan to fabricate a reason for an invasion of Ukraine so as to "influence Russia to abandon the path of war and choose a different path while there's still time."According to the US, there is evidence at Ukraine's border indicating Russia is "moving towards an imminent invasion" and is not withdrawing troops, despite claims to the contrary.Blinken's comments, coupled with those of others — including President Biden's warning that he believed an attack would happen "within the next several days" — display a greater sense of certainty from the administration that Russia's actions signal that the country is moving forward with plans for war."Every indication that we have is that they are prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine," Biden told reporters as he left the White House on Thursday.Russia once again dismissed the notion it was preparing to attack Ukraine as "baseless accusations."Read more here.From CNN's From Darya Tarasova in MoscowJapanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida initiated a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday evening, according to the Kremlin. Earlier on Thursday, British defense ministry said its latest intelligence assessment suggests that Russia could invade Ukraine "without further warning.” View his tweet here: From CNN's Tim Lister in Kyiv Monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have reported a sharp escalation in ceasefire violations along the frontlines dividing Ukrainian and separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.