dialog and diplomacy that could serve to deescalate in which the russian federation engages in good faith. we would be behind anything that would serve to deescalate tensions in a genuine way. that is precisely why we have engaged multilaterally and also bilaterally again in full consultation with our partners and allies with the russian federation. there are two paths. you ve heard us say this before. the path of diplomacy and dialog and the path of defense and deterrence. we are pursuing both paths simultaneously knowing that we have to be ready for either decision. you have been listening, of course, to state department spokesperson ned price briefing correspondents including andrea mitchell as you heard and reporters that cover the state department on the response of the u.s. ukraine crisis. mike memoli outside the white house, a unified response from
president spoke today with the uk prime minister boris johnson. we ve seen as the white house has laid out, two paths, diplomatic and deterrence. and the diplomatic has continued with the allies speaking himself with vladimir putin either in person or by phone over the last few weeks. you have the german chancellor set to do that in person tomorrow. and no de-escalation on any point on the russian side of further escalation. that s why you see very clear, unusually public, the declassification of information what the united states expects from russia sort of a hail mary here that level of exposure will have them do anything further. so ambassador mcfaul, talk about that hail mary, by the way, we were just taking a look live at the u.s. embassy in kyiv that mike was references.
they should keep their hands out of what is happening there, especially sending troops to ukraine. there are some members of the republican party who say troops should not be heading there, we should mind our own business, we have all of these different inactions in the senate and how they re moving forward. for the time being, as far as this briefing is concerned, they re hoping to get the latest information and the next steps of what the u.s. can do, hallie. with developments happening every hour at least today. ambassador mcfaul, let me turn back to you, that richard, mike, leigh ann and mike have talked about, the possibility about diplomacy. we heard about the pact for diplomacy, the possibility. how do you with your knowledge and expertise of the kremlin of the players involved here, how do you see the potential for any kind of off-ramp for vladimir putin? well, you know, i think it s low. because if you look at the capabilities that the russian army and all russian militar
discuss or address the idea that intelligence reports had suggested that russian troops had actually moved closer to the ukrainian border. he wouldn t get into that. he wouldn t confirm it. he wouldn t deny it. but he did say that the buildup continued. that ground units are moving. there are naval forces, substantial naval combat forces in the black sea. including forces that have the ability, that have amphibious vessels that can move troops ashore for a possible landing, on that front as well. so, a very worrying array of russian military power and absolutely no sign of that buildup being pulled back or scaled back in any way. and it is that troop buildup, mike, that has the u.s. government relocating essentially operations farther west? yeah, that s right, hallie, we heard that from secretary of state tony blinken this afternoon, in a statement
the pentagon s view as to the crisis happening along the russia/ukrainian border. that russia could invade, you heard john kirby say with little or more warning, i m hallie jackson in washington covering all of this with nbc news team. mike memoli outside the white house. leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill. and former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. msnbc and international affairs analyst, richard, i ll go to you first. what we re hearing from mr. kirby there has been the first reaction officially and formally from the biden administration, to the speech in which the ukrainian president delivered to his people in which he referenced this date coming up, february, february 16th as the potential date that russia may invade. what are you hearing and what do you know? so, that speech has caused some confusion here in ukraine. so, let s just take a bit of a