coordination with our allies and partner, we are equally prepared for other scenarios. the u.s. has been working with allies to prepare possible sanctions should russia move forward with an invasion and as well, the u.s. has committed to supplying some defense mechanisms to ukraine for the country to defend themselves in the event of an invasion. now, the u.s. of course is also looking towards america s interests, drawing down most of its embassy personnel in kyiv, as well as urging all americans to leave the country as soon as possible, including this weekend. they said it is past time to get out of the country as the u.s. would not be sending military forces in to help in an evacuation should russia escalate into an invasion. now, the next steps, the white house says that the president and russia will remain in contact in the coming days, but they acknowledge there s still a very distijt possibility that
you ll remember last weekend, the foreign minister lashing out, talk about the conditions. now that russia has put out its most dire prediction, an invasion before the end of the olympics, before february 20th, we re not seeing a change in attitude from the top of ukrainian leadership. today, we saw president zelensky going down to the south of ukraine so visit troops who were carrying out military exercises. at at all at the same time that russian troops are carrying out their exercises to the north of ukraine and we heard him heaping all sorts of skepticism about this saying if anybody has intelligence saying there s 100% certainty that russia s going to invade, i would like to see it. that this information is not helpful and that panic is the friends of the enemy. take a listen. we have a lot of information
created, but they will affect our allies. so we don t want those problems, our allies don t and certainly we don t want 50,000 people killed or otherwise hurt in ukraine from this. but it s all in putin s hands. i think the united states, our diplomats and nato have done everything possible to head this off. it s up to mr. putin. he s put demands out that are impossible to deal with. it s not just about ukraine. it s about nato. really about freedom and democracy versus his autocratic rule. to create a pretext for conflict in my view. no question about it. and i do want to ask you about what you were just saying because russia is already a rogue actor. it is already a rogue state. to a large extent and putin has been in charge of that for many years now. as somebody who was the supreme
russia will move forward. alex, for your part in ukraine, i m wondering if you re picking up anything from people there if they are getting worried about the situation. i suppose they could look at the maps we re showing your viewers and see how their country is surrounded by russia on three sides. just picking up where arlette left off about this warning from the u.s. side and really the rest of nato, that there s a real possibility that russia is going to invade ukraine. at the same time, we have been hearing president zelensky not just today, but over the past few weeks, really trying to push this message of calm. we ve seen real disparity between kyiv and washington, d.c. about the prospects of what may happen. we ve seen frustration from the ukrainian side, real anger, about this talk of an imminent invasion by russia.
invade ukraine at any time despite mr. biden s warnings of severe consequences. all signs point to growing concern among world leaders. numerous countries now urging a mass exodus of citizens out of ukraine. the u.s. warning them get out because the united states can t help you if you re trapped in a war zone and all non-emergency staff have been ordered to leave in kyiv. the u.s. secretary of defense has pulled some u.s. forces out of ukraine, moving them quote, elsewhere in europe. russia has ukraine surrounded on three sides with all the tools they need to quickly launch an attack. it would likely begin with ariel bombings, missile attacks and a rapid assault on kyiv. that s according to the white house. alex is on the ground in ukraine, but let s begin at the white house with arlette saenz. what else are we learning about this