MOSCOW, 14 February 2022, (TON): With the risk of war looming larger, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden held a high-stakes telephone call as a tense world watched and worried that an invasion of Ukraine could begin within days.

Before talking to Biden, Putin had a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, who met him in Moscow earlier in the week to try to resolve the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

A Kremlin summary of the call suggested that little progress was made towards cooling down the tensions.

The closely watched call between Biden and Putin lasted just over an hour, according to the White House. Biden conducted the call from Camp David. The White House insisted that Russia faces “swift and severe costs” if its troops carry out an invasion. No more details of the discussion were available.

In a sign that American officials were getting ready for a worst-case scenario, the United States announced plans to evacuate its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, and Britain joined other European nations in urging its citizens to leave Ukraine.