MOSCOW — In a phone call with President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden made clear that if Russia invades Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies would respond “decisively and impose swift and severe costs,” the White House said.
According to a readout of the hourlong call, Biden told Putin that an invasion would “produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing.” The U.S. remains committed to diplomacy, but was “equally prepared for other scenarios,” according to the White House.
The two presidents spoke the day after Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, warned that U.S. intelligence shows that a Russian invasion could begin within days and before the Winter Olympics in Beijing end Feb. 20.
The Biden administration has been warning for weeks that Russia could invade Ukraine soon, but U.S. officials had previously said the Kremlin would likely wait until after the Games ended so as not to antagonize China.
Sullivan told reporters on Friday that U.S. intelligence gleaned show that Russia could take military action the during the Olympics.
Russia has more than 100,000 Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders but denies that it intends to launch an offensive against Ukraine.
With the risk of war looming larger, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden held a high-stakes telephone call Saturday as a tense world watched and worried that an invasion of Ukraine could begin within days.
Before talking to Biden, Putin had a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with him in Moscow earlier in the week to try to resolve the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War. A Kremlin summary of the call suggested that little progress was made toward cooling down the tensions.
The closely watched call between Biden and Putin began shortly after 11 a.m. and lasted just over an hour, according to the White House. Biden conducted the call from Camp David. There were no immediate details about the discussion.
