incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera, but if they actually do what they are capable of doing with the force amassed on the border, it s going to be a disaster for russia. so those were his initial comments. the white house is in cleanup mode today and a short time ago the president clarified his remarks and delivered a much sharper message to the kremlin. i ve been absolutely clear.putin. he has no misunderstanding if any, any assembled russian units move across the ukranian bothered, that is an invasion, but it will be met with severe and coordinated economic response. let there be no doubt at all that if putin makes this choice russia will pay a heavy price. cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson in moscow and in new york a even senior fellow with the council on former relations and columnist
military forces from russia, known as the little green men quite often, cyberattacks, lots of covert operations, large scale deniable operations conducted by the russians in that original seizure of crimea in support of russian-speaking rebels in that part of the world. so he s talking in terms of the first phase. he s saying that he expects to see cyberattacks, efforts made to undermine the political process here. perhaps fifth columnists participating in political protests here basically threatening the stability of the government. perhaps then providing an excuse for some kind of an intervention, jake. sam kiley in kyiv, ukraine, nic robertson in moscow, russia, thanks to both of you. coming up, we ll talk to the biden voters living there in allentown. was the restlessness handed down? some tell cnn it s getting very hard to stay biden cheerleaders. stay with us.
the moment is they re still considering this diplomatic option. the answers they know they re getting in writing from the united states this coming week are going to be negative to all of their big questions. so the take away has to be in moscow at the moment is this military aid that s coming in significant enough for them to decide that the military option, if they were going to go for it, they say they re not, is this the time to do it. do they need to move up their departure time in military terms, if you will to the battlefield. lots being weighed on all sides, nic robertson in moscow, thank you very much. coming up, some good news on the horizon, why some health experts are starting to believe that the end of the pandemic is in sight. we all have our fingers crossed, don t we? with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it s innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair.
be imminent. the pentagon says they re notifying troops and their families about the potential move but no final decision has been made yet. president biden met with allies for more than an hour yesterday to discuss options. ukraine s foreign minister warned ukraine needs to be at the table when any big decisions are made. if anyone makes a concession on ukraine behind ukraine s back, first, we will not accept that. we will we will not be in a position of a country that picks up the phone. here s the instruction of the big power. no. let s get to cnn senior international correspondent sam kiley in ukraine and nic robertson in moscow. what more are you hearing from ukrainian leaders today? ana, it s very interesting.
having president biden and putin sit down for a meeting to try to work through some of these tensions. all right. we shall see. arlette saenz and washington and nic robertson in moscow. thank you. let s bring in congressman ro khanna, a democrat from california and a member of the house armed services committee and the oversight committee. good to see you, congressman. so both president biden and secretary of state antony blinken have said that russia will face severe sanctions if it were to invade ukraine. so what do you think the u.s. should be prepared to do if, indeed, this happens? i m encouraged by secretary of state blinken s meeting with the russian foreign minister. he said cooler heads were prevailing, they re looking at possible diplomatic solutions. here s what i think should happen. ukraine should declare they re going to be the a non-aligned nation, neither on the united states nor russia s side. they were like that up until