President Joe Biden was working the phones with top national security officials in the moments before and after his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced he was launching a military intervention in Ukraine, the grim fulfillment of Biden’s predictions stretching back weeks.

National security aides had already been huddling in the West Wing on Wednesday evening, preparing for what US officials had warned was a looming assault on Ukraine, when Putin’s speech began airing on Russian television around 9:45 p.m. ET.

Appearing before dawn in Russia, the speech came as a surprise.

At the United Nations, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield had spoken by phone to Biden