Biden in a phone call warned Putin of ‘swift and severe costs’ if Russia invades Ukraine

• The Associated Press reported on Saturday that President Joe Biden warned Putin of “swift and severe costs” if Russia invades Ukraine.
• The warning came in a lengthy phone call Saturday between the two world leaders.
• Biden told Putin to pull back the more than 100,000 Russian troops stationed at Ukraine’s border.

President Joe Biden, in a lengthy phone call on Saturday, asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull back the more than 100,000 Russian troops stationed at its border with Ukraine. 

Biden warned Putin the US would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if Russia invaded Ukraine, the White House said, The Associated Press reported

US officials have warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin before the end of the ongoing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing after previously suggesting Russia planned to wait until after the games ended February 20.

“We are not saying a final decision has been made by President Putin,” said National security advisor Jake Sullivan on Friday at a White House press briefing. “What we are saying is that we have a sufficient level of concern based on what we are seeing on the ground, and what our intelligence analysts have picked up, that we are sending this clear message.”

Russia has denied that it intends to launch an offensive operation in Ukraine. Sullivan on Friday said the US still hadn’t concluded with certainty if Putin intended to invade but said there was a “very distinct possibility that Russia will choose to act militarily, and there is reason to believe that that could happen on a reasonably swift timeframe.” 

The call between Biden and Putin on Saturday, which lasted more than an hour, per the AP, was the first time the two leaders have spoken since December.

“The president will not be putting the lives of our men and women in uniform at risk by sending them into a war zone to rescue people who could have left now but chose not to. So, we’re asking people to make the responsible choice,” Sullivan said on Friday.

The Department of Defense on Saturday also saidit is pulling National Guard troops out of Ukraine ahead of a possible Russian invasion. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered 160 members of the Florida National Guard, troops assigned to the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, who have been deployed to Ukraine since last fall to temporarily relocate elsewhere in Europe.