WASHINGTON – The Biden administration said on Friday that it is negotiating with Congress and allies on a series of options designed to prevent Russia from launching a potential attack on Ukraine.

President Joe Biden said on Friday that his government is preparing to take action to make it difficult for Russia to invade Ukraine for the second time in ten years.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has warned Washington and European allies that Russian troops have assembled on its borders. At the same time, Moscow accused Kiev of conducting its own military buildup on the border.

Biden hopes that the United States can prevent the situation from escalating.

“What I’m doing is putting together what I think will be the most comprehensive and meaningful series of measures that will make it difficult for Mr. Putin to continue to do what people think he might do,” Biden delivered a speech at the White House on Friday. Tell reporters.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters later in the day that the Biden administration is monitoring the situation on the border between Ukraine and Russia.

“We cannot predict from here what President Putin’s calculus is, or what Russia’s calculus is. We have seen what they did in 2014. We have seen what they did on the border, and we will negotiate with our allies And the partners and Congress are here to prepare for a series of options,” Psaki said, referring to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.

The seizure of Crimea in 2014 caused international commotion and triggered a series of sanctions against Moscow. Soon after the annexation, a war broke out between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Secretary of State Anthony Brinken called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the border first to ease tensions.

“It is very, very difficult to solve any problem diplomatically when someone is holding a gun at someone’s head. So, I think this is the first step,” Brinken told a virtual audience on Friday.

The country’s top diplomat also warned that if Russia continues to take provocative actions against Ukraine, it will cause trouble.

“If Russia just decides to take a confrontational route, if it re-launched aggression, it will bring very serious consequences, not only from us, but also from other countries and Europe. I very much hope that Russia will incorporate this into its thinking, especially because There are better ways to move forward,” Brinken said. “Confrontation is not in anyone’s interest.”

Earlier this week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that any future Russian aggression against Ukraine would have serious political and economic consequences for Moscow.

“The ministers made it clear that we stand by our decision. Our support for sovereignty and territorial integrity [of Ukraine and Georgia] Still unwavering,” Stoltenberg said at the NATO meeting in Riga, Latvia.

Brinken’s comments were made after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Stockholm Security and Cooperation Organization’s ministerial meeting.

Lavrov refuted the claim that Moscow was preparing to attack Ukraine and defended Russia’s right to deploy troops on its territory.

Lavrov said: “Everyone is talking about the escalation of tensions in Europe. Especially at the borders of Russia and Ukraine. You are very clear about our views on this, because President Putin said that we do not want any conflict.”