Russia-Ukraine updates: US to ban Russian carriers from its airspace

The White House released a one-sentence readout of President Joe Biden’s meeting that he convened of his National Security Council on Sunday over Ukraine and Russia’s military buildup, confirming that the meeting happened.

"Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. convened a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the latest developments regarding Russia’s military buildup on the borders of Ukraine," the statement said in full.

The meeting lasted just over two hours, a White House official told ABC News, and a photo of the meeting tweeted by the White House showed CIA Director William Burns, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall. Name plates for DNI Avril Haines and Chief of Staff Ron Klain can also be seen on the table.

Also joining but not visible in the photo were Vice President Kamala Harris, who connected via phone from Air Force Two, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, according to a White House official. Granholm, Raimondo and Yellen joined the meeting given their roles in sanctions, export controls and energy, the official added.

- ABC News' Justin Gomez

The U.S. embassy in Moscow is warning Americans to avoid crowds and to stay alert in places frequented by tourists and Westerners. 

"According to media sources, there have been threats of attacks against shopping centers, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine," the security alert, released Sunday, states.

It is unclear whether the alert is directly related to the heightened tensions over Russia's potential invasion of Ukraine or what "media sources" the embassy is referring to. 

"Have evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance," the embassy advised.

-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan

Lower-level Russian tactical commanders have been given orders consistent with orders to invade Ukraine, U.S. officials tell ABC News. 

The news is consistent with statements previously made by President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who have said they believe U.S. intelligence indicates Putin has made a decision to invade Ukraine.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Sunday by phone in an apparent last-ditch effort to discourage the Russian president from invading Ukraine.

Macron claimed that he and Putin agreed to "resume the work" of the Normandy Format peace talks, the long-running negotiations mediated by France and Germany and aimed at ending the war in eastern Ukraine between Russian-controlled separatists and Ukraine's government.

Macron's office says the agreement was made on the basis of "the exchanges and proposals made by Ukraine in recent days."

The Kremlin's readout of the call, though, did not say the two had agreed to anything concrete on the Normandy Format and noted Putin has accused Ukraine of only "initiating" negotiations. Putin did agree to intensify the search for a diplomatic solution, given "the severity" of the situation, the Kremlin said in a statement.

During the call, Putin blamed the escalation around eastern Ukraine on the Ukrainian military and expressed "serious concern" about the "sharp deterioration" around the frontline there, according to the Kremlin. 

Following the call, Macron spoke by phone with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for 30 minutes, according to the French president's office.

Afterward, Zelenskyy tweeted that Ukraine wants an immediate "regime of silence" to be observed in eastern Ukraine and called for the Trilateral Contact Group that helps mediate ceasefire violations to be immediately convened amid the intensified shelling in the region as Russia continues to build an apparent pretext for an attack.