NEW YORK, Feb 19 — The safe-haven Japanese yen fell slightly against the dollar yesterday, pulling back after recent gains, but was up for the week as a series of developments in the Ukraine-Russia crisis put investors on edge.

In afternoon New York trading, the dollar was up 0.1 per cent at 115.025 yen. For the week, the dollar was down 0.4 per cent against the Japanese currency in its biggest weekly percentage decline in about a month.

Against the Swiss franc — another safe haven — the dollar was up 0.1 per cent at 0.9212 francs.

Concerns about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine also have boosted demand for safe-haven bonds, with Treasury yields dropping yesterday.

Yesterday, Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine said they planned to evacuate their breakaway region’s residents to Russia, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the events transpiring in the border area over the past two days are part of a Russian scenario to create false provocations.

News late on Thursday that Blinken had accepted an invitation to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late next week gave some relief to investor jitters.

"Everyone is fixated over what’s happened with the Ukraine situation. There’s a tremendous amount of nervousness.

Everyone is hoping for some type of deescalation but it just doesn’t seem like that is the direction things are going,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst, at Oanda in New York.

"The trade has been about safe havens, and it’s been a great week for the Japanese yen. Today the yen is slightly softer but the overall concern right now is you’re entering the long weekend, and you still have a lot rhetoric coming out of Russia,” he said.

The Russian rouble weakened 1.26 per cent versus the greenback at 77.40 per dollar.

The euro was down 0.3 per cent against the dollar at US$1.1329, while the US dollar index was up 0.3 per cent.

Bitcoin last fell 1.3 per cent to US$40,025. — Reuters