National security adviser: Russia could invade Ukraine ‘any day now’

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that Russian military forces could invade Ukraine “any day now.” 

During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Sullivan told host Martha MacCallum, however, that Russia could still choose to take a diplomatic path. 

“Well, what I can tell you Martha is that we are in the window. Any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine or it could be a couple of weeks from now or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead,” Sullivan said. 

“The key thing is that the United States needs to be and is prepared for any of those contingencies in lockstep with our allies and partners.” 

Sullivan also said that U.S. officials have informed allies about the possibility of war breaking out in Ukraine, adding that material support was also provided to Kyiv under President Biden’s direction. 

Sullivan told MacCallum that U.S. officials have offered Russia a diplomatic path to choose if war breaks out in the region.

 “If war breaks out it will come at an enormous human cost to Ukraine, but we believe that based on our preparations and our response, it will come at a strategic cost to Russia as well,” he said. 

Sullivan’s remarks come amid increasing concerns that Russia will invade Ukraine. Moscow has amassed more than 100,000 troops on the border with its neighbor, but has said it has no plans to invade. 

On Saturday, a Russian official called a U.S. assessment of a possible invasion of Ukraine “scaremongering.”

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, made the remark while reacting to a headline of a report in The Washington Post citing a U.S. military and intelligence assessment that said, “Russia could seize Kyiv in days and cause 50,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine.”

Polyanskiy called the headline “madness and scaremongering.”

“Madness and scaremongering continues..what if we would say that US could seize London in a week and cause 300K civilian deaths? All this based on our intelligence sources that we won’t disclose. Would it feel right for Americans and Britts? It’s as wrong for Russians and Ukrainians,” Polyanskiy wrote on Twitter.