• Miliband: 'No question' of war with Russia
• France: EU is considering sanctions against Russia
• Unmanned Georgian spy plane shot down
  

Tensions between Russia and the West were ratcheted even higher today after Moscow warned that the American naval build-up in the Black Sea could be seen as a 'declaration of war'.

As the fallout over the Kremlin's invasion of Georgia continued, Russian military chiefs warned that they were monitoring closely the appearance of US warships in the region.

Russia's foreign minister also accused Foreign Secretary David Miliband of being 'hypocritical' in his criticism of Moscow, pointing out that Britain had itself rushed to defend the Falklands.

But today Mr Miliband said there was 'no question' of a war with Russia.

The US Coast Guard cutter Dallas at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi

Thank you: Captain John Moore of the Dallas is greeted by Georgians as he delivers aid

He also said the situation marked 'a clear end to the relative and growing calm in and around Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union', telling the BBC that the conflict heralded a new instability.

The rhetoric flew as a South Ossetian interior minister claimed an unmanned Georgian spy plane had been shot down in the territory this morning.

Mikhail Mindzayev said the drone was shot down over South Ossetia today by local forces. He said it had crossed into South Ossetia from the south, meaning it was of Georgian origin.

A Georgian official denied that the country had sent any drone over South Ossetia. Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili says Mindzayev is 'seeing things'.

Hardline: David Miliband has called for a review of relations with Russia

Adding to the tension, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said European Union leaders are considering imposing sanctions against Russia ahead of a summit on Monday to discuss the situation in Georgia.

Russia hit back, saying such talk was the product of a 'sick imagination' and Western confusion.

'Apart from that my friend Kouchner also said that we will soon attack Moldova and Ukraine and the Crimea,'  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today.

'But that is a sick imagination and probably that applies to sanctions as well,' Lavrov told reporters in the Tajik capital.

'I think it is a demonstration of complete confusion,' he said.

At the same time Russia's fellow members of the G8 group of rich nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the UK - issued a statement deploring 'Russia's excessive use of military force'.

Meanwhile, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev threatened to use his country's military machine to respond to the deployment of an American anti-missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

A senior Russian general, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, criticised the arrival of the US Coastguard cutter Dallas at the Black Sea port of Batumi today, the second of an expected three US ships sent to deliver aid to Georgia.

The Dallas had been due to land in the Georgian port of Poti, where Russian troops are still manning checkpoints. But without explanation it docked 50 miles south in Batumi, a port outside Russian control.

Nato has said it is also undertaking pre-arranged exercises in the Black Sea involving US, German, Spanish and Polish ships.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in his Moscow office today

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the Americans of bringing in weapons for war-torn Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid - a charge dismissed by the White House as 'ridiculous'.

Mr Miliband, asked whether Nato would go to war against Moscow if it were to attack a neighbouring country or ally again, said: 'We don't want all-out war with Russia ... There's no question of launching an all-out war against Russia.'

With Russian newspapers and TV stations today highlighting maps showing the build-up of Western forces in the region, General Nogovitsyn warned the Nato presence could not be allowed to grow 'indefinitely'.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to Nato, warned against Western interference in Georgia's breakaway regions, which were recognised as independent by Moscow on Tuesday.

'If Nato takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia,' he said.

Accusation: Russian president Dmitry Medvedev claims the US ship was bringing in arms for Georgia

Prime minister Vladimir Putin reasserted his own influence as he met president Medvedev.

Mr Putin's spokesman said: 'Certainly some measures of precaution are being taken. It's not a common practice to deliver humanitarian aid using battleships.'

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov last night lashed out against Britain and Nato following Mr Miliband's heavy criticism of Russia's conflict with Georgia.

'The moralising that we hear from our Western colleagues is not based on facts,' Mr Lavrov said.

'It's strange that our actions to defend our citizens right on our borders should be criticised by Britain, considering its actions in the Falkland Islands, which are the other side of the world.'

In one small gesture of co-operation, Russian forces turned over 12 Georgian soldiers on the border of Abkhazia.

Georgia's former president Eduard Shevardnadze  - who was also foreign minister in the former Soviet Union  -  said Russia would live to regret its recognition of rebel regions and called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi.

As the drama unfolded, the Foreign Secretary urged the West to make Russia pay for its decision to use military force to carve up the fledgling democracy on its doorstep.

Mr Miliband accused the Russians of encouraging the 'festering divisions' of the Cold War after they used military might to impose their authority in the Caucasus region.

His provocative intervention came in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, which diplomats fear could be the next target.

On a day of rising tensions yesterday:

• Ukraine threatened to increase the rent it charges the Russian fleet for the use of its Black Sea port;

• France predicted that Ukraine and Moldova could be the next Russian targets;

• Mikhail Gorbachev compared the showdown to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war.

Mr Miliband told the Ukrainians: 'We need to support your rights, and raise the costs to Russia of disregarding its responsibilities.'

The Foreign Secretary flew to Kiev to stage a show of support for the Ukraine, which like Georgia has a pro-Western president with ambitions of joining both Nato and the European Union, a move away from Moscow's sphere of influence which has angered the Kremlin.

Ukraine also has a large Russian-speaking population, but is much bigger than Georgia.

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Two children play in Tskhinvali, capital of Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia yesterday

Mr Miliband said: 'Russia is more isolated, less trusted and less respected than two weeks ago. It has made military gains in the short term.

'But over time it will feel the economic and political losses.

'If she truly wants respect and influence, and the benefits which flow from it, then Russia needs to change course.'

He said Russia was breaking the terms of a ceasefire and suggested Moscow could be made to pay a heavy economic price for its actions.

Mr Miliband accused Mr Medvedev of trying to 'redraw the map' of the Caucasus through his unilateral recognition of the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and said he had a 'big responsibility not to start' a new Cold War.

The response of the EU and Nato to such 'aggression' should be one of 'hard-headed engagement' in reviewing relations with Russia.

'That means bolstering our allies, rebalancing the energy relationship with Russia, defending the rules of international institutions, and renewing efforts to tackle "unresolved conflicts",' he said.

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And Mr Gorbachev urged political leaders in the Kremlin and the West to act now to stop matters running out of control.

'The time is ripe to stop scaring each other and to do something constructive,' he said.

'It is a vital need to warn of the disastrous effects any impulsive, ill-considered step may trigger.'

Earlier, Ukraine said it wanted to discuss charging Russia more for the lease of a Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol in the Crimea.

Russia has said any renegotiation would break a 1997 agreement between the two countries, under which it leases the base for £50million a year until 2017.

Gordon Brown will attend an unprecedented meeting of leaders of the EU's 27 member states on Monday to discuss their response to Russia's actions.