conversation focused particularly on those rising tensions between russia and ukraine. the prospect, of course, of a war between those two countries looming over the 50-minute conversation between the two leaders that took place on thursday. president biden phoning in from his wilmington, delaware, home. a senior administration official telling us that the tone of the conversation was substantive and serious, and the white house press secretary jen psaki making clear that president biden urged russia to de-escalate tensions with ukraine. quote, he made clear that the united states and its allies and partners will respond decisively if russia further invades ukraine. she goes on to say that president biden reiterated that substantive progress in these dialogues can occur only in an environment of de-escalation rather than escalation. ultimately president biden s main objective here in this call was to once again make clear the stark choice that russian president vladimir putin faces. th
do we know about whether or not to send u.s. forces to eastern europe? it s a decision that could come as soon as this week. what we do know, as of today, president biden hasn t made a final decision about that. behind the scenes they are getting the specifics ready in case he makes call to bolster u.s. forces in eastern ooum to increase the troop presence as they are playing behind the scenes for what that would look like. the concern in the administration is that an invasion could be imminent. right now, russia is not only de-escalating, they are adding force capability to the border. reporter: moments ago, president biden phoning as the crisis in ukraine escalates. we can t get into the mind of president putin. we are seeing the preparations they are making at the border. reporter: biden consulting the leaders of germany, france, the united kingdom, poland, nato and the european commission as he debates sending thousands more of u.s. troops to eastern