Euro, Hong Kong dollar, U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, pound and Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration, January 21, 2016.
Euro, Hong Kong dollar, U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, pound and Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration, January 21, 2016. Reuters / Jason Lee

The euro weakened and safe-haven currencies including the U.S. dollar were in demand on Thursday amid intensifying fears of an imminent full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The greenback, yen and Swiss franc all rose back toward multi-week highs to Europe's single currency, while the greenback hovered near a one-week peak versus major peers after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he believes Russia will invade Ukraine within hours.

Riskier commodity-linked currencies also tumbled, succumbing to worsening risk sentiment after earlier in the week proving resilient due to high commodity prices.

Ukraine has declared a state of emergency and Moscow began evacuating its Kyiv embassy, while the West slapped Russia with sanctions.

The euro fell as much as 0.26% to $1.12750, the lowest level since Feb. 3.

It declined 0.29% to 129.640 yen, approaching Tuesday's low of 129.360, its weakest since Feb. 3. It slipped 0.22% to 1.03550 franc, closing in on Tuesday's trough at 1.03405, which was the lowest since Jan. 24.

The U.S. dollar index - which gauges the currency against six major peers, including the euro, yen and Swiss franc - rose as much as 0.19% to 96.372 for the first time since Feb. 14.

"We're definitely seeing a knee-jerk reaction to Blinken's comments," with haven currencies in demand and the euro and commodity currencies sold off, said Joseph Capurso, a strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"The situation certainly looks like it's going to get worse before it gets better."

The Australian dollar dropped 0.33% to $0.72075 and the New Zealand dollar slid 0.41% to $0.67475.

Sterling lost 0.08% to $1.35340.