ukraine. do you share those fears? i certainly know that the front line states, the eastern flank, former states of the old soviet union have those fears. we want to provide them reassurance. we want to provide them defensive capabilities. they all have their own, but we have flown some troops to provide additional reassurance to them. one can never underestimate vladimir putin. this is not just a war of choice he has made. it s going to be a war of carnage, and i certainly hope he doesn t make this choice, and i certainly hope he does not go further. he could set off an enormous conflict in europe. what is really fundamental here, wolf, which you know from all of your years covering international relations and foreign policy and international security is what putin is doing here is not only a front to ukraine, to europe, but to the
negotiable. some very strong language coming out of here as well. very strong indeed. kaitlyn, only moments ago the ukraine president zelenskyy said the russian leadership a huge change from what zelenskyy has been saying. how is the white house bracing for putin s next move? they haven t said yet they do believe the russian president has given this go-ahead. they said they believe he s made a decision. we heard that from president biden. the white house has been incredibly public about what they believe he plans to do next. you ve seen them lay it out in great detail including from the secretary of state of what they believe would lead up to this. now they say this invasion has started as president biden said for the first time yesterday. of course, now it s following what they said would happen afterward. what they say is happening according to jen psaki and what she told us in the briefing, they believe president putin is adapting and improvising its
wendy sherman, thanks so much for joining us. really appreciate it. as you well know, the u.s. has warned ukraine that the latest intelligence suggests an imminent full-scale russian attack. what s the latest you can tell us, madam secretary, on when putin may actually move and how this attack would unfold? good to be with you. wish it were under better circumstances wolf. to all of your viewers, president putin has a very critical choice to make about whether he is, in fact, going to move forward with a full-scale invasion of ukraine. it appears that he is poised to do that as you have reported today, our military has said and you can see from overhead pictures that they have deployed a great deal of their military, and they re ready to go and waiting for president putin s order. this is going to be a devastating attack by putin, really undermining sovereignty, territorial integrity and the
of four sides. the only escape, west into poland, that s where u.s. troops are positioned. russia has the forces it needs. what they re waiting on is that decision from putin. that s what complicates the waters here. an official said it s not on autopilot. putin is reading the situation. he is acting and reacting. that makes it all the more difficult to find out how this goes and how he does with the massive buildup of forces. the president of ukraine revealed he tried to call putin today but was met, and i m quoting now, met with silence. how do you interpret that? reporter: well, obviously it s on purpose, but i think there might be a couple of things going on. number one, it makes it impossible for any type of discussion to go on, and the other thing is that president putin considers the leaders in ukraine illegitimate. so he can make an argument, at least in his mind that he doesn t have to talk to them
crisis as the united states warns a full-scale russian invasion is now imminent. let s bring back our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto on the ground in ukraine. cnn contributor on russian affairs jill dougherty is joining us from moscow, chief white house can t kaitlan collins at the white house, and oren liebermann at the white house, of course. jim, how stunning is it to hear the deputy secretary of state wendy sherman tell me that putin is poised to launch a, quote, war of carnage that could leave thousands on both sides dead? reporter: it s the culmination of warnings we ve been hearing from the pentagon going back to november. that s the first time i heard descriptions of what u.s. intel was picking up about russia s buildup, the forces headed this way to surround ukraine, but also the plans in place for a full-scale invasion involve ing