President Joe Biden told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering” and that the West was committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but is “equally prepared for other scenarios,” the White House said Saturday. It offered no suggestion that the hourlong call diminished the threat of an imminent war in Europe.

Biden also said the United States and its allies would respond “decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if the Kremlin attacked its neighbour, according to the White House. The two presidents spoke a day after Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, warned that US intelligence shows a Russian invasion could begin within days and before the Winter Olympics in Beijing end on Feb. 20.