could begin at any time should vladimir putin decide to order it. i will not comment on the details of our intelligence information but i do want to be clear, it could begin during the olympics, despite a lot of speculation that it will only happen after the olympics. as we ve said before, we are ready either way. we re ready to continue results oriented diplomacy that addressed the security concernsch united states and russia and europe consistent with our values and the reciprocity, and we ve made that clear to russia with our allies and partners. we re also ready to respond alongside those allies and partners should russia choose to take military action. our response would include severe economic sanctions with similar packages imposed by the european union, the united kingdom and canada and other countries. it would also include changes to nato and american force posture along the eastern flank of nato.
different message than we heard publicly before. that vladimir putin could be interested in the seizure of kyiv. there was more detailed here from jake sullivan than we ve heard from anybody in the u.s. government in terms of what might happen and how this plays out. he said this invasion could start with an aerial assault or missile attack that don t differentiate between civilians an military targets and then followed bia ground invasion, that could cut off land lines and then followed by electronic warfare and cyberattacks, all of this, that is how an invasion plays out but it is a very clear warning that right now is the time for u.s. citizens to get out and he even said if you re having financial problems get in touch with the u.s. embassy and they ll help you out because if and when putin makes the decision to invade, there is no guarantee there will be commercial air or way to getoit by train or car so now it is the time to get out. in case putin or russia wants to use that as
to prevent a war. to avert a war. and all we can do is come here before you and give good and share everything that we know to the best of our ability while protecting sources and methods so we continue to get the access to intelligence that we need. there is another big difference between what happened in 2003 and what is happening in 2022 and in that case it was information about intentions, about hidden things, stuff that couldn t be seen. today, we are talking about more than 100,000 russian troops, amassed along the ukrainian border with every capacity out there in the open for people to see. it is all over social media. it is over your news sites. so, you could believe your own eyes. that the russians have put in place the capabilities to conduct a massive military operation against ukraine should they choose to do so. and then finally, i would just say if you look at the course of the past few months, as we have said, we predikts there will be
to echo what both biden and secretary lincoln has said. we encourage all remaining us citizens in ukraine to depart immediately. we want to be crystal clear on this point. any american in the uk should leave as soon as gas ukraine. in the next 48 hours. we obviously cannot predict the future. we don t know exactly what is going to happen but the risk is now high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands. if you say you are assuming risk with no guarantee that they will be any other opportunity to leave and no prospect of a us military evacuation in the event of a russian invasion. if a russian attack on ukraine proceeds it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality.
that is a possible line of attack, course of action that the russian forces could choose to take. they could also choose to move in other parts of ukraine as well. the last point that i would make and i know this is the subject of a fair amount of back and forth between the administration and the press over the course of the past week, we re firmly convinced that the russians should they decide to move forward with an invasion, are looking hard at the creation of a pretex, a false flag operation. something that they generate and try to blame on the ukrainians as a trigger for military action and we re calling that out publicly because we do believe that if russia chooses to do that, they should be held to account, the world should not believe that a false flag operation, that they conducted, it is a legitimate cause for going into ukraine. you mentioned that you did not want to say that putin has made a decision. but does the united states