US weighs more military support for Ukraine to resist Russia if it invades

US says Russia creates excuses to invade Ukraine 1:08

(CNN) --

The Joe Biden administration in the United States is weighing new options, including supplying more weapons to Ukraine to resist the Russian occupation, to try to increase the costs for Russian President Vladimir Putin in case of who decides to invade the country.

The discussions, described by multiple sources familiar with them, reflect a sense of pessimism in the administration after last week's diplomatic talks with Russian officials yielded no progress and Russia continued to increase its force levels in recent days.

In addition to considering how to help the Ukrainian military and government defend against an invasion, the US is evaluating options to bolster the ability of Ukrainian forces to resist a possible Russian occupation.

That includes potentially providing the Ukrainian military with additional ammunition, mortars, Javelin anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft missile systems, which would likely come from NATO allies, a senior US official told CNN.

The news comes ahead of a face-to-face meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday. A senior State Department official said the scheduled meeting "suggests that perhaps diplomacy is not dead."

President Joe Biden said sending US combat troops to Ukraine to fight a war with Russia is off the table.

But special operations forces already rotate in and out of the country to provide training to Ukrainian forces, and a senior administration official said it's possible other agencies could provide some support, likely the CIA.

CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to Kyiv last week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and discuss the risks to Ukraine, a US official said.

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"We are looking at a variety of options to help defend Ukraine," a senior administration official told CNN.

This may include additional defensive arms sales, "advice" and "helping Ukraine hold its own in the fight against a larger conventional Russian military presence."

Discussions about supporting a resistance campaign reflect an increasingly pessimistic view within the administration about Putin's willingness to invade and occupy large swaths of Ukrainian territory.

Russia has increased force levels since Friday, the senior administration official said.

Biden asks Putin to reduce tensions with Ukraine 5:17

“Let's be clear. Our opinion is that this is an extremely dangerous situation. We are now at a stage where Russia could launch an attack at any time in Ukraine," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. “And what Secretary Blinken will do is make it very clear that there is a diplomatic path forward. It is up to President Putin and the Russians whether they are going to suffer serious economic consequences or not."

At this time, military sources familiar with the planning say there have been no official changes in Washington's guidance, with officials stressing that these are initial considerations not yet formally presented to the president for approval.

Some members of the administration fear getting bogged down in a support effort against the occupation and have argued that US forces should leave if a war breaks out.

Greater pessimism

US officials emerged from meetings in Europe last week even more pessimistic about what Putin might be planning and how limited the West's influence is to stop him, even with punitive sanctions and a greater NATO presence in Eastern Europe today. on the table.

"We can demand some pain, but there is a big difference between demanding pain and actually having influence," said a senior US official.

As recently as late last week, Biden administration officials were conducting tabletop exercises to analyze all possible policy responses from the United States and its allies, sources familiar with the planning told CNN.

Senior US officials also spent much of the weekend in high-level meetings to discuss the way forward, a senior State Department official said.

The United States went on to say that diplomacy is "crucial" and talks are expected to continue.

But there were no details on what the next diplomatic steps would look like, and Russia was reducing its diplomatic presence in Kyiv in what a US official said was ominous and worrying for the United States.

Russia's Foreign Ministry denied on Tuesday that it had started evacuating diplomatic staff, saying "the Russian embassy in Kyiv is operating in a standard way."

Meanwhile, Pentagon officials have been working out options for how the United States could help fuel a sustained resistance campaign in Ukraine and inflict the highest possible costs on Russia after any invasion, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Does Russia have an unwillingness to reduce tension with Ukraine?

2:51

The CIA continues to operate an intelligence-gathering training program in the US for Ukrainian special operators and intelligence officials, current and former officials familiar with the program told CNN.

The program was first reported by Yahoo News.

A CIA spokesman has dismissed any suggestion that the program helped train a waiting Ukrainian insurgency, but former intelligence officials familiar with it say the program includes the kind of covert paramilitary training needed to gather intelligence in a war zone. .

"The purpose of the training, and the training that was provided, was to assist in intelligence gathering, not to assist in an insurgency," a senior intelligence official said.

Putin's plans are still unclear

US officials still don't know what Putin's plans are, or if he even decided to invade.

Some officials who have seen the intelligence say there is evidence that Russia plans to try to take Ukraine's capital, Kiev, and topple the government.

The deployment of forces from Russia's Eastern Military District to Belarus on Monday struck many US officials and Russian military analysts as particularly ominous, as did a series of cyberattacks against Ukraine last week.

But others believe Russia is more likely to launch a more limited operation in eastern Ukraine aimed at securing a land bridge to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, a false flag operation, accusing Ukraine of provocations and using it to justify an invasion.

As within the Biden administration, Ukrainian officials have not concluded that Putin has made a decision, a Ukrainian official said, adding that the talks in Europe had no discernible impact on the crisis.

Meanwhile, the Russian troop buildup along the borders of Ukraine, and in neighboring Belarus, continued to grow.

“We see that it is not being de-escalated, it is ongoing,” said the official.

"It's still not enough to do a full-scale invasion and sustain it, but it's still a lot."

What did Biden and Putin talk about in their virtual summit?

This is what we know 2:10

As part of the preparation, Russia has deployed more planes closer to the border, raising fears of a significant air component for an eventual invasion.

Two to three dozen Sukhov-34 fighter jets were joined by helicopters positioned near Ukraine, the official said.

Ukrainian defense officials are in daily contact with their American counterparts at the Pentagon, the official said, preparing for a variety of different actions the Russians could take.

“We prepare a response for each scenario,” the official said.

"We are going to fight if something happens. Our people are ready to fight. Every window will be shot if [the Russians] get in [into]."

“Everyone who is willing to fight will do so and will receive a gun for this, just like in 2014,” the official continued, adding that individual “reservists” who have received some training will simply have to register with a recruiting office.

Asked where the weapons for those reservists would come from, the official said they would come from NATO-backed Ukrainian stockpiles.

"The material support of the partners will also go to them," he said.

CNN's Kylie Atwood contributed reporting.

Vladimir Putin