number of options that they are prepared to lay out, including sanctions, including blocking certain technologies to russia, among other things, and including pressing up troops, nato troops in the region if putin were to take that step. they've also built things for confidence building things, things they might offer russia if they are indeed serious with negotiations and that's a willingness to talk about things like missile deployments and the scope and scale of military exercises, things like that. now, the white house says that they are not considering cuts to u.s. troops in the region, but our own reporting shows that there are certain options that have been under discussion that would reduce the u.s. military footprint in the region, but, steph, all of this depends on whether or not russia shows that they are serious about negotiations and that's something that the u.s. just isn't sure of and that they're hoping to get a sense of in these first initial negotiations. >> richard engel is on the front lines in ukraine.