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In a phone call lasting about an hour, the White House said that President Joe Biden made it clear to Putin what he would be risking with an invasion.
“President Biden made it clear that if Russia undertakes a new invasion of Ukraine, the United States, together with our allies and partners, will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia.
“President Biden reiterated that a new Russian invasion of Ukraine would cause human suffering and reduce the position of Russia,” said the White House .
Biden “It was clear with President Putin that while the United States remains prepared to engage in diplomacy, in full coordination with our allies and partners, we are equally prepared for other scenarios.”
The call between the two leaders comes hours after the United States pulled some of its forces out of Ukraine and order the evacuation of most of its embassy staff on Saturday, as fears grow of a Russian invasion of the country in the coming days.
The moves were another sign that the United States fears Putin could order an invasion at any time, just a day after Biden’s national security adviser warned Americans in Ukraine to leave the country and that military action could begin with an aerial bombardment that could kill civilians.
Before the calls, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused to the expanding Western countries and the press for a “large-scale disinformation campaign” about an alleged imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine “to divert attention from their own aggressive actions.”
“At the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, the space of global information faced a cam media campaign unprecedented in its scale and sophistication, the aim of which is to convince the world community that the Russian Federation is preparing an invasion of the territory of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
Putin and Biden last spoke on the phone late last year. Prior to that, on December 7, they had negotiations by videoconference. The first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Biden as heads of state took place in Geneva in June 2021.
The Russian president has also engaged a number of Western leaders in talks which so far seem unsuccessful in defusing the situation.
Putin’s weekend phone calls follow several Friday warnings from officials Americans and Europeans, who expressed concern about the security of Europe and the security of its citizens in Ukraine.
The United States has estimated that Russia has more than 100,000 soldiers near the border with Ukraine, with thousands added this week, according to an administration official.
Biden, who is spending the weekend at Camp David, participated this Friday in a virtual meeting from the White House with leaders from Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, NATO, the European Commission and the European Union. Council to discuss escalation of tensions.
After the call, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, appeared before the press and he said that, although Putin has not decided to act.
There is a “very clear possibility” that Russia could quickly engage in major military action.
Sullivan warned that a Russian assault on Ukraine could soon begin, beginning with aerial bombardment and missile strikes.
He advised all Americans in Ukraine to dispatch the country for its own safety as quickly as possible.
“Obviously we can’t predict the future, we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. But the risk is now high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that this is the prudent thing to do,” he said.