INTERNATIONAL: Pope Francis has prayed for peace in Ukraine and has said that "war is madness" in his weekly general audience on Wednesday .

Francis has led a day of prayer for peace in Ukraine on January 26, calling for dialogue to prevail over partisan interests to resolve the West's stand-off with Russia.

NATO says Russia has more than 100,000 troops stationed on Ukraine's border, including 30,000 in Belarus for joint military exercises this month.

Russia denies it is planning to invade Ukraine, but says it wants security guarantees that include a promise of no missile deployments near its borders and a scaling back of NATO's military infrastructure.

While the West has ruled out defending Ukraine with military force, it has promised to use an arsenal of tools including arms shipments and reinforcement of nearby NATO countries.