In his own remarks, Blinken noted that the world has already seen Moscow significantly increase troops along the border and deploy misinformation to suggest Ukraine is the aggressor.

"We've seen this playbook before in 2014 when Russia last invaded Ukraine, then as now they significantly increased combat forces near the border," Blinken said.

The day before, Putin said NATO military expansion close to Russia's borders and any deployment of missile systems in Ukraine would be crossing a "red line."

Asked about Putin's remarks, Blinken said they would be "a bad joke if things weren't so serious."

Referring to NATO, Blinken said that "as a defensive alliance, we're not a threat to Russia.

"That is the purpose of the Alliance."

"The idea that Ukraine represents a threat to Russia, or for that matter that NATO represents a threat to Russia, it is profoundly wrong and misguided," Blinken added.

Stoltenberg noted to CNN that after the first time Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO increased its defenses "with combat-ready battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance, in the Baltic countries, in Latvia ...