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For months, the West has watched a steady build-up of Kremlin forces along Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus. The increased military presence mimics Russian moves ahead of its 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea, which sparked an international uproar and triggered a series of sanctions against Moscow.

The Kremlin has denied that the troop deployment is a prelude to an attack and has instead characterized the movement as a military exercise.

Russian officials have meanwhile repeatedly called on the U.S. to prevent an eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance.

Russia has also demanded that the U.S. “shall not establish military bases” in the territories of any former Soviet states that are not already members of NATO, or “use their infrastructure for any military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them.”

The U.S. and NATO have said that such a request cannot be accommodated.

Since 2002 Kyiv has sought entry into NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance.

While President Joe Biden has not committed to sending U.S. combat troops to Ukraine, American forces could deploy to neighboring NATO member countries. In addition to sharing a border with Russia and Belarus, Ukraine is boarded by four NATO countries.

“We are ready, capable and prepared to uphold our obligation under treaty to NATO,” Milley said, evoking the group’s Article 5 clause, “an attack against one NATO ally is an attack against all NATO.”

Earlier this week, Biden told reporters that a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine would radically alter European security. “If he were to move in with all those forces, it’d be the largest invasion since World War II. It would change the world,” Biden said.

Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, the second call this month, to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine. 

The president also told Zelenskyy that the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv remains open and fully operational after the State Department issued an order for eligible family members of personnel at its embassy in Kyiv to leave.

The State Department also recommended on Sunday that all U.S. citizens in Ukraine depart the country immediately, citing Russia’s continued military buildup on the border.