"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," United States President Joe Biden said to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation on Saturday, 12 February, according to the White House.
The US President's efforts, however, to resolve the Ukrainian tussle diplomatically yielded no results, as the telephonic conversation between him and Putin did not make any difference to the existing conditions, reported AFP.
Putin's dialogue with French President Emmanuel Macron in the afternoon on the same day also didn't cause any change in the status quo.
The tensions in Ukraine, on the other hand, continued to mount, with Russia encircling the neighbour with close to 100,000 troops, and Washington warning of an 'all-out invasion' in response.
Russia, the US, and Britain withdrew some of their diplomatic staff from Ukraine on Sunday thereafter, with Washington and other European countries asking their citizens to leave the country as early as possible, due to the growing concern of an invasion by the Russians. Following the appeal, the authorities of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv asked the citizens to keep calm.
"Right now, the people's biggest enemy is panic," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was reported as saying by the AFP.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned that the war could begin any day from now, and that Russia had clustered more than enough soldiers required for an attack. The US military intelligence had earlier concluded that Russia would await the closing of the Winter Olympics, to not offend its ally China.
The United States had earlier on Saturday also announced a complete withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.
"A temporary repositioning of the 160 members of the Florida National Guard who were in the country advising and mentoring Ukrainian forces was ordered," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement as per the reports in The Moscow Times.
(With inputs from AFP and The Moscow Times.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)