Earlier on Thursday afternoon, U.S President Joe Biden spoke over the phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin about current issues that have been causing tensions to flare up in eastern Europe.

Russia has been amassing troops near the Ukraine border for months. An estimated 175,000 Russian troops are already near the Ukraine border, spreading fears of Russia invading Ukraine.

Moreover, Russia has also sent a list of demands to NATO to restrict its influence in eastern Europe and stop Ukraine from joining NATO. By the West, these demands were seen as Russia trying to avoid a direct confrontation with NATO if it invades Ukraine.

On Thursday afternoon, Biden held a phone call with Putin. When asked about the phone call, Biden said, “It was polite, but I made it very clear if in fact, he invades Ukraine, there will be severe consequences, severe consequences, economic consequences like none he’s ever seen.”

However, Joe Biden denied that the U.S would directly come to Ukraine’s aid militarily. He stated, “the idea the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia invading Ukraine is not in the cards right now.”

However, he repeated that Russia would have severe economic consequences if it attacked Ukraine. When asked if he was confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin got the message, he replied, “I am absolutely confident he got the message.”