i m pamela brown in washington. you are live in the cnn newsroom on this sunday. news as tensions escalate. the top diplomat sending a blunt warning to russia coming close to a red line that moscow must not cross. if a single additional russian force goes into ukraine in an aggressive way, as i said, that would trigger a swift, a severe and united response from us and from europe. and, again, there are other things russia could do that falls short of actually sending additional forces into ukraine and, again, across the board we re prepared with europe for a swift and calibrated and united response. we re looking at every scenario preparing for every one. blinken s warning comes as russia has amassed some 100,000 troops near the ukraine border. despite repeated warnings from
using commercial or other privately available transportation options. now cnn reported on friday that the embassy in kiev had asked that the state department authorize the departure of family members and nonessential staff. this is certainly an escalation in the planning that the u.s. has been making in the event that russia were to invade ukraine. at this moment a new travel advisory that has gone out. there are rising concerns about this tension regarding russia and ukraine and whether russia will actually follow through with that invasion. you heard secretary of state antony blinken earlier today double down on that warning that any russian invasion would result in severe consequences from the u.s. and allies. the u.s., of course, is still trying to pursue that diplomatic route to de-escalate the situation between russia and ukraine but they are prepared
strength from the european union. of course, as you mentioned, antony blinken will be talking to europeans about the out come of his conversations with sergei lavrov. of course, that question of resolving the differences, the divisions, crucial also to that unity that we just heard secretary of state blinken talk about, that unity that the united states is so countth on in its approach towards russia thank you moment. a lot riding on this meeting today, and we ve heard already as these arrivals continue, meeting delayed a little in its start from the danish foreign minister he believed europe would come up with sanctions than we ve seen before, in 2014, what they have been saying the last few weeks. getting everyone on board is going to be the struggle and challenge today. we know for europeans to impose sanctions, they have to vote on that unanimously, isa. we ve had the ukraine
if we don t do something strong right now, i m afraid that he s going to invade ukraine, which will have, as the secretary talked about, he s right. and i think you and i did, it will have global ramifications here. well, meanwhile, former u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo who served in the trump administration told fox news on sunday he believes russia does not see biden as credible. and he suggested the u.s. should respect vladimir putin s power. we had deterrents for four years. vladimir putin didn t do these kinds of things. he didn t threaten, he didn t use coerce iive activity to pus back on nato. we made sure nato was focused on its mission. when we did that, vladimir putin respected us. we had respect for him and his power. he is a very talented statesman. he has lots of gifts. he was a kgb agent, for goodness sakes. he knows how to use power. we should respect that. and if we did that, we can make
now the embassy in kyiv wants to have that presence reduced because of the risk posed by russia. in the words of the white house press secretary jen psaki russia could invade at any moment now. pam? all right, natasha bertrand, thanks so much. i want to bring back in global affairs analyst susan glasser and former cia chief of russia operations steve hall. what does this say to you, the state department giving nonessential staff and diplomats families the chance to leave ukraine, does it signal anything bigger in the position in ukraine or something more eminent coming from russia? if i heard correctly it s an order departure for families, they are ordered home.