Biden will travel to Europe next week for emergency NATO meeting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

President Joe Biden will travel to Europe next week for an emergency NATO meeting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tuesday’s announcement comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy begs the alliance to do more to save his country.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden wanted to meet “face to face” with his counterparts.

“His goal is to meet in person, face to face, with his European counterparts and talk about where we are in the conflict with Russia,” she told reporters. It is not yet determined if Biden will try to meet with Zelenskyy himself or if he will visit refugees in Poland.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Tuesday that he is calling for the alliance’s leaders to convene in Brussels to discuss their response to Russia’s attack.

“We will address #Russia’s invasion of #Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defence. At this critical time, North America & Europe must continue to stand together,” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.

“For years we have heard about the supposedly open door, but we have also heard [lately] that we should not enter, and this is true and we must admit it,” Zelenskyy said of Ukraine’s attempts to join NATO, which started as early as 2008.

“It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO, we understand that, we are adequate people,” he added.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly expressed frustration with NATO’s refusal to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Stoltenberg, Biden, and other world leaders have warned that such a move would likely need to be enforced by shooting down Russian planes, potentially pitting the world’s two largest nuclear powers against each other.

The White House and Pentagon also ruled out allowing the Polish government to use a US base to transfer old fighter jets to Ukraine over concerns that Moscow would view the actions as an escalation in the conflict.