U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he could see himself directly sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin should Russia attack Ukraine, saying he had warned there would be "severe consequences" to an invasion.

Speaking on the 8,500 military troops recently put on high alert and what it would take for them to be deployed, Biden said they are part of a NATO deployment, not a U.S.-only operation. After speaking with NATO allies, he said they were on the same page that there's "no reason for any member of NATO to worry" whether the rest of the group would come to their defence.

Asked what he thought was the risk of an invasion, Biden said it was like "reading tea leaves." However, he said, if Putin invaded it would "change the world."

"Ordinarily if it were a different leader, the fact that he continues to build forces along Ukraine's border from Belarus all the way around, you'd say 'well that is looking like he's going to do something," Biden said. "But then you look at what his (Putin's) past behaviour is ... it all comes down to his decision."

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