By Josh Lederman and Courtney Kube -
NBC News
WASHINGTON — The United States has obtained intelligence showing that Russian military officials have been ordered to move forward with the invasion of Ukraine, a U.S. official and another person with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.
The intelligence information, which recently came into American hands, supports President Joe Biden's surprising statement Friday that the United States believes his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, has already decided to invade, the sources said.
[Ukrainian President Asks Putin for a Meeting Following Increased Violence in the Country's Rebel Territories]
The United States witnessed Russian military units taking action to carry out the order, in preparation for an invasion, further reinforcing the view that Putin could strike at any time, they added.
War tanks advance during Russian and Belarusian military exercises at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training camps, on Belarusian territory, on Saturday, February 19. Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr / AP
“As of this moment, I am convinced that (Putin) has made the decision.
We have reason to believe that," Biden said from the White House on Friday.
When asked how the United States knew that, the president said only: "We have significant intelligence capability."
Biden's statement marked a turning point, after weeks of saying the United States believed Putin had not made a final decision.
On Saturday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he agreed with Biden that Putin had decided to invade and that
Russia's military was now in "the position to be in to attack."
[Nerves in Ukraine after evacuation of Donetsk in preparation for an invasion]
White House officials say the threat level in eastern Ukraine, and along the Russian border, has not abated over the weekend, despite diplomatic efforts by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, at a major annual security conference in Munich.
The White House said
Biden was briefed again on Saturday by his aides that
"Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine at any time."
Self-proclaimed republics Donetsk and Lugansk mobilize reservists in Ukraine
Feb. 20, 202201:25
On Sunday, Biden called a rare weekend National Security Council meeting focused on Ukraine, the White House said.
Austin and Blinken, both recent arrivals from Europe, were seen entering the West Wing shortly before noon.
A White House official said Harris would participate in the meeting remotely from
Air Force Two
(the vice presidential plane) on his way back from Germany.
[Faced with the anguish of a war, Ukrainians remember the massacre where the Russians took over Crimea]
Blinken, who on Thursday briefed the UN Security Council on an elaborate Russian plot to fabricate a pretext for war, told NBC News '
Meet the Press
that Putin's actions since then are "following the script I drew”: The senior official recalled his earlier predictions that Russia would mount false-flag operations in eastern Ukraine and use so-called temporary military exercises to justify a military buildup near Ukraine's border.
“Everything that we said would probably happen before the actual invasion is happening,” Blinken said.