The trip will provide a high-profile leadership moment for the president on the world stage, but also spotlight rising calls for the U.S. to do more.
BRUSSELS — President Joe Biden heads to Europe Wednesday under increasing pressure at home and abroad to do more to aid Ukraine, as he tries to walk a fine line between providing support and deterring Russia while avoiding further escalation.
Biden was scheduled to travel to Brussels to attend a last-minute emergency meeting of NATO country leaders to discuss the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While in Brussels, he also planned to attend a meeting of G7 leaders and a European Council gathering. He was then set to travel to Poland, which has found itself on the front lines of the military and refugee crisis, to meet with that country’s president.
The trip will provide a high-profile leadership moment on the world stage for Biden in one of the greatest periods of European conflict since World War II. But it will also come with pressure to respond to calls to do more for Ukraine from Democrats and Republicans at home, European allies, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“It will feel very flat if there is this giant meeting of NATO, the most powerful alliance in the world, and the only outcome from it is a statement of solidarity. That will not look like a strong move,” said Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration. “That will be demoralizing for Zelenskyy and uplifting for Putin.”
McFaul said he is also looking for the NATO and EU countries to come together at the summit on new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and top officials, to provide additional military equipment and to ratchet up economic moves, like an oil embargo.
“If we want to put more pressure on this economy, there is lots more we can do,” McFaul said. “I would hope of a meeting of so many people there would be something like that.”
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said there would be an announcement about additional sanctions and sanction enforcement efforts in the coming days, after the U.S. has met with its allies.
Sullivan said Biden will also discuss at the meetings Thursday what the long-term troop presence in Europe should look like. Another topic: the potential for Russia to use nuclear weapons and how the U.S. and its allies should respond if that occurs.
If Biden and the other heads of state gathering fail to strike the right tone, they risk a split-screen moment where they will appear to be comfortably gathering in Brussels and posing for photos while images of a humanitarian crisis play out on television and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy pleas for help as his capital is under assault.
