The U.S. intelligence community has told the White House and American allies that there are signs that President Vladimir V. Putin has moved up his timetable and could launch an invasion of Ukraine within days, according three Western officials briefed on the discussions.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at a news conference in Melbourne on Friday that a Russian invasion could even occur before the Winter Olympics in Beijing end on Feb. 20.
There had been widespread speculation that Mr. Putin would not take action during the games, in order not to distract attention from an event highly prized by President Xi Jinping of China. Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi issued a long joint statement in which they said the partnership of the two nations had “no limits.”
President Biden held a phone conference on Friday with a wide array of NATO and European Union leaders to discuss what appears to be a deteriorating security situation in Ukraine.
German officials briefed on the call said that Americans seemed even more concerned than they were a week ago that an invasion could be imminent.
The White House said that the call, which began at 11:02 a.m. in Washington and ended at 12:21 p.m., included Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany; Prime Ministers Boris Johnson of Britain, Mario Draghi of Italy and Justin Trudeau of Canada; and Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France, Andrzej Duda of Poland, Klaus Iohannis of Romania, Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission and Charles Michel of the European Council; and the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
Mr. Biden did not have a news conference scheduled on Friday, but White House officials said that the call would be discussed by his aides at an afternoon press briefing. In a statement, the White House said that the leaders would discuss “continued coordination on both diplomacy and deterrence.”
The call comes as Russia builds up its forces around Ukraine — in Belarus, western Russia and Crimea, the territory Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 — in what U.S. and NATO leaders have said appears to be preparation for an invasion. Ukraine said on Friday that Russian-backed separatists were holding military exercises in the slice of eastern Ukraine they control, at the same time that Russia holds exercises near Ukraine.
