MOSCOW — President Joe Biden on Saturday again called on President Vladimir Putin to pull back more than 100,000 Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders and warned that the U.S. and its allies would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if Russia invades, according to the White House.
Biden and Putin spoke for more than an hour the day after the U.S. president’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 during the Olympics.
Russia denies that it intends to launch an offensive against Ukraine.
Story by Jim Heintz and Aamer Madhani. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Mark Lewis in Stavanger, Norway, also contributed to this report.