reporter: and a world in wait for russian president vladimir putin s next move. it is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning. reporter: biden because officials in a flurry of meetings. the national security team gathered at the white house with the world engross in the an urgent effort to find an elusive off-ramp as massive russian military drills continue in close proximity to the border. biden spoke this afternoon about the current state of play. we are prepared to continue to work on diplomacy but we are also prepared to respond in a united and decisive way with our allies and partners, should russia proceed. reporter: biden speaking to president zelensky on sunday one day after an hour-long phone call with putin. officials said there was no break through as more than 100,000 russian troops ring the
ukraine that threw out his stooge that led to the humiliation and embarrassment of that event and the seizure of crimea and moving into eastern ukraine. and i suspect all these eight years to a certain degree he has underestimated them. while he sat there in eastern ukraine with his separatists. he really wanted that regime to turn toward him and three successive rexweems have turned away from him and the one in power now zelensky was the most aggressive. as this plays out and eventually the military is defeated, the people are not going to be defeated, bill. and he is going to have to contend with them as he puts in place a puppet government likely led by ukrainians and cope with that much resistance inside a country of this scale is going to be a major issue
we re starting to see evidence that those russian special forces that we had heard had been inserted into ukraine have so-called come to life. they re now being seen at bases where they have taken over from the ukrainian military even in the capital region of kyiv. what we have seen in these initial hours suggests the beginning, not the end, of what putin has the capability to unleash on ukraine. the nato secretary general has called the north atlantic council to meet. it could mobilize 40,000 strong nato force to reinforce the baltics, poland and romania to deter putin from going further in any article 5 nations. the president is meeting with the national security council right now. putin has forces in belarus 125 miles from the polish border and what has been notable in his recent speeches is how he makes reference to not just
country and down to crimea that russia held for eight years. what is putin s agenda? what would satisfy him, dana? is it the entire country? yesterday we were talking about the possibility of russian assets being set up coming in from the north, northeast and the east and the south. he has done all of that thus far. so does he want the entire country? and to take zelensky and throw his government out? that s option a. option b might be something where he is satisfied with a resolution that divides the country in half. you take portions east of this river as i describe here. best case scenario for the ukrainian people might be the disputed area they went into eight years ago. when you consider the line of attack that he has taken thus far, option c might be the best outcome. ukrainians are far out manned
videos indicates it was all part of a coordinated effort by the russian government and the russian backed separatist its in donetsk and luhansk to launch the invasion of thoers leaders calling for the evacuation of civilians in the east. coming to a focal point in the capital. the words of the nato secretary general really undercut what is happening here. he says we now have war in europe on a scale and of a type we thought belonged to history. it is a grave moment for the security of europe. ukraine president zelensky echoing those comments today calling on the international community to come together and create an anti-putin coalition that would involve further sanctions and defense weapons brought to ukraine so these soldiers can fight back. dana: trey, thank you. we ll stay in touch as the hour moves along. bill: so many in our team have been up throughout the night. jennifer griffin checking in with you. what s the latest from there?