President Biden threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with “swift and severe costs” during a high-stakes, 62-minute phone call Saturday morning as tensions over Ukraine reached a fever pitch.
“President Biden was clear that, if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our Allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia,” the White House said in a statement issued after the call.
“A further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing,” the statement continued – adding that the US and its allies “are equally prepared for other scenarios” should diplomacy fail.
The Kremlin did not immediately release a statement about call.
The conversation, arranged hastily on Friday, came at what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “a pivotal moment” of diplomacy as Russia continued to mass more than 130,000 troops and heavy military equipment along its border with Ukraine.
Details of the call were not immediately released.
“So far, we’ve only seen escalation from Moscow,” Blinken said Saturday after speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “This is a pivotal moment. We’re prepared for whatever should happen.”
Biden was secluded at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, for the call, his first direct conversation with Putin since December.
They spoke soon after Putin wrapped up a lengthy conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron in which the two discussed “the conditions for security and stability in Europe,” the Élysée Palace said Saturday.
Former President Donald Trump dismissed the flurry of diplomacy as “just an exercise.”
“The phone call I think is perfunctory, I don’t think much will come out of it,” he told Fox News on Saturday morning. “I don’t think at this point Putin’s going to be listening” to Biden – who, Trump said, had “emboldened” Russian ambitions by presiding over the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Earlier Saturday, the US and its Western allies began to evacuate their embassies in Kyiv. A small core of American diplomats would remain in Ukraine, the State Department said — but would relocate to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, where they could be more easily evacuated if a Russian invasion begins.
About 160 American military trainers, members of the Florida National Guard who have been in Ukraine to help its forces prepare for a potential invasion, are being pulled from the country, the Pentagon announced Saturday.
Russia has repeatedly denied any intent to invade Ukraine, despite its months-long buildup of troops along their shared border.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has also rejected the idea that a Russian offensive is imminent.
“The best friend for our enemies is panic in our country,” Zelensky told reporters Saturday. “All this information only creates panic, it doesn’t help us.”
But US intelligence officials have reportedly concluded that Putin has given the order to attack its neighbor within days.
But Zelensky expressed skepticism about those reports – and indicated that he has seen no such evidence.
“If you or any person has additional information regarding a 100-percent-certain invasion, beginning on the 16th, by the Russian Federation into Ukraine, please give us this information,” he said.
Meanwhile, thousands of Ukrainians rallied in Kyiv Saturday in a show of national unity, with demonstrators chanting “Glory to Ukraine” and waving flags and banners — including one that read “Invaders must die.”