The presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, will have a virtual meeting on December 7, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He added that "The presidents will decide for themselves" how long the conversation will last.

The Washington Post, citing intelligence, said today that Russia was planning an offensive against Ukraine early next year, involving 175.000 troops.

"The United States is conducting a special operation to aggravate the situation in Ukraine and is shifting responsibility to Russia," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

The United States, their allies in NATO and Ukraine accuse Moscow of deploying security forces near the border with Ukraine, and Kiev fears Russia is planning an attack.

Moscow denies the allegations and accuses Kiev of also deploying forces to invade pro-Russian separatist-held territory.. Russia emphasizes that it has the right to deploy troops on its territory and that this does not pose a threat.

Biden said yesterday that he was working on a "comprehensive initiative" that would make it harder for Putin to invade Ukraine.

"What I am working on now is to formulate the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to achieve what people fear," Biden said.

Ukrainian officials say Russia could invade Ukraine next month. Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov said the number of Russian troops near Ukraine and Crimea was estimated at 94.300 and warned that a "major escalation" was possible in January.