Ukraine has effectively sealed a deal on establishing an EU military training mission in the country, Kiev's top diplomat [Dmitry Kuleba] has revealed, amid an increasingly tense situation on its shared border with Russia.

"We reached an agreement with the EU in principle that the EU will roll out advisory training in Ukraine," he said. However, he went on to say such a deal would not include combat forces.

Brussels will also "offer a set of proposals on strengthening our cyber security," the diplomat added.

Kuleba's remarks come amid worsening tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border, which have escalated in the past few days. Kiev's soldiers and those loyal to the two self-declared separatist republics in the Donbass have accused one another of heavy shelling, and international observers have warned that the situation could spill over into a resumption of full-scale hostilities.

American and European officials have been warning for months that Russia's armed forces are preparing an invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly insisted that it has no aggressive intentions toward its neighboring country and has hit out at Western military presence close to its borders.

In November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that "more and more forces and equipment are being accumulated on the line of contact in the Donbass, supported by an increasing number of Western instructors."

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No new sanctions can possibly deter Russia from doing what it wants, because Moscow has experience dealing with them for many years already, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, on Friday, the Russian leader claimed Moscow cannot possibly avoid Western sanctions, because they are not aimed at altering the Kremlin's behavior. In his view, they are actually a plan to hinder the economic development of Russia.

"Sanctions will be imposed in any case. Whether they have a reason today, for example, in connection with the events in Ukraine, or there is no reason, it will be found. The goal is different. In this case, the goal is to slow down the development of Russia and Belarus."

The Russian president also stated that Moscow believes these sanctions to be illegitimate, calling them an unfair competition tool of the US and its allies. Also accusing the US of a selective approach to international norms, he said:

"This is a gross violation of international law," he said, also accusing the US of a selective approach to international norms. They care about it only when it is advantageous to them. They always interpret everything only in their own favor and neglect the interests of other [countries]."

The only way for Moscow and Minsk to mitigate the effect of sanctions is to develop economic cooperation and import substitution.