Biden Says Putin Has Decided to Invade Ukraine

President Biden said on Friday the United States has intelligence showing that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has made a final decision to invade Ukraine, rejecting the final efforts of diplomacy.

“We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to, intend to, attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days,” Mr. Biden said in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. “We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.”

Asked whether he thinks that Mr. Putin is still wavering about whether to invade, Mr. Biden said: “I’m convinced he’s made the decision.” Later he added that his impression of Mr. Putin’s intentions is based on U.S. intelligence.

The president’s comments, the second in three days, are the clearest indications of just how close the world may be to a catastrophic conflict in Europe. Previously, the president and his top national security aides have said they did not know whether Mr. Putin had made a final decision to follow through with his threat of an invasion.

Still, Mr. Biden implored Russia to “choose diplomacy.”

“It is not too late to de escalate and return to the negotiating table,” Mr. Biden said, referring to planned talks between Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Russia’s foreign minister have agreed to talks next Wednesday. “If Russia takes military action before that day, it will be clear that they have slammed the door shut on diplomacy.”

Mr. Biden was more direct on Friday about his belief that war between Russia and Ukraine may be inevitable. But he also vowed that the United States and its allies are united behind imposing severe economic sanctions if Russia’s forces cross Ukraine’s borders.

The president spoke after he held another round of urgent, virtual talks with European leaders on Friday afternoon.

Tension in the region escalated as Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine called for a mass evacuation of the area on Friday, claiming Ukraine was about to attack, a dire development that Western officials denounced as Russia’s latest attempt to create a pretext for President Vladimir V. Putin to send tens of thousand of troops into Ukraine.

Senior American officials also said for the first time that they believe Russia was responsible for cyberattacks on Ukrainian banks this week. And they warned that they are bracing for possible cyberattacks by Russia on American targets if the United States and its allies impose tough sanctions on Russia.

Mr. Biden’s remarks follow a new assessment by American officials based in Europe that Russia has as many as 190,000 troops massed at the Ukrainian border and inside two pro-Moscow separatist regions — Donetsk and Luhansk.

Mr. Biden said just days ago that 150,000 Russian troops were ready to participate in an invasion. Friday’s assessment by the U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe indicated that the larger number includes military troops and other Russian-led or backed forces.

As unverified reports of Ukrainian attacks and acts of sabotage in the separatist regions filled Russian state media, Ukraine’s military intelligence warned on Friday night that Russian forces had mined “social infrastructure facilities in Donetsk.” The mines were part of an effort, the defense ministry said, to stage a false-flag attack and “create grounds for accusing Ukraine of terrorist attacks.”

Mr. Biden and the allies have warned for days that they believe Mr. Putin is prepared to stage fake attacks that could be used to justify an invasion. Mr. Putin insisted on Friday that he was prepared for further diplomacy, but Russian officials said the country’s military will conduct drills over the weekend that include the launch of ballistic and cruise missiles. The test of the country’s nuclear forces added to the sense of foreboding in the region.

“We are ready to go on the negotiating track under the condition that all questions will be considered together, without being separated from Russia’s main proposals,” Mr. Putin said in a news conference alongside his close ally President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, who was visiting Moscow.