KYIV, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia will extend military drills in Belarus that were due to end on Sunday (Feb 20), the Belarusian defence ministry announced, in a step US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said made him more worried about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The defence ministry said the decision was taken because of military activity near the borders of Russia and Belarus as well as the situation in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region.
Sporadic shelling across the line dividing Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in that region increased sharply since Thursday and continued on Sunday.
Blinken said all signs suggested Russia was on the brink of invading. Russia has repeatedly denied such plans.
"Everything we are seeing suggests that this is dead serious," Blinken told CNN, adding that the West was equally prepared if Moscow invades.
"Until the tanks are actually rolling, and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President (Vladimir) Putin from carrying this forward."
The mounting tensions over Ukraine have left senior leaders tearing up their schedules.
The White House said on Sunday that President Joe Biden was cancelling a trip to Delaware and remaining in Washington. Canada's foreign minister, Melanie Joly, also said Sunday that she was postponing a trip to France because of the situation and would immediately return to Canada.
Blinken said his planned meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was still set to proceed this week as long as Moscow did not go ahead with the invasion.
An adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron said France and Russia had agreed that a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with representatives from Ukraine and Russia, should be held on Monday. Poland, currently the OSCE chair, said earlier that at Ukraine's request it was convening an extraordinary session of its council, which is dedicated to preventing armed conflict.
Belarus did not say how long Russian troops in Belarus - estimated by NATO to number 30,000 - might now remain in the country, which lies north of Ukraine. Belarus Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said the focus of the extended exercises was "to ensure an adequate response and de-escalation of military preparations of ill-wishers near our common borders".
The Kremlin did not comment on the Belarus drills and Russian state TV news made no mention of the extension. The Macron adviser said Putin had reiterated during a phone call with the French leader on Sunday that the troops would leave Belarus after the exercises.
NATO says Russia could use the troops in Belarus as part of an invasion force to attack Ukraine. Moscow denies any such intention.
"It is not an exaggeration to say that Europe is a step away from war, which was something unimaginable not long ago," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a TV interview.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, told Reuters the extension of the exercises underlined that official promises from Moscow should not be taken as binding.
Biden met with his National Security Council - including Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and intelligence chiefs - earlier on Sunday.
