there s no surprises here but they re expecting to get an answer fairly soon. not today but fairly soon. foreign minister speaking tomorrow. we ll hear more then. absolutely. nic, thank you so much for that. let s go to ukraine now. cnn s sam kiley live in ukraine s capcapital, kyiv. the president is speaking with president biden this afternoon. what have you learned? reporter: well, he will be endorsing this nato and u.s. bilateral letter because it sets in writing what had been said in public verbally which is just as nic was saying there that nato is a sovereign nation, rather, nato is a multilateral organization that does not exclude membership and certainly does not allow other nations to impinge on people s sovereignty, other nation s sovereignty when it comes to joining nato. this will be a phone call between the ukrainian president and joe biden that is one of
europe. these are not troops of course that are planning to go to war with russia. they re to reassure poland and the baltic states, our nato allies, that we are with them, the united states and the west and nato does take its article 5 to mutual defense seriously. it doesn t mean these troops will be fighting in ukraine. it doesn t mean that nato and the united states aren t going to be helping ukraine fight for itself and that could lead to a very, very bloody and violent situation in the days and weeks to come if russia decides to enter the country. let s go to ukraine now. matt bradley, you re on the ground there. we just reported the state department has ordered family of kiev embassy employees to lead, nonemployees to lead, depart. what s the mood on the ground as this crisis seems to be
thanks and congratulations, i suspect, and puts a line under, i think, that slip that biden made about a week ago when he indicated that there may be some lesser response if there was a minor incursion by russia into ukrainian territory. that s now been put aside entirely and there is unanimity in the western international community that if there is any kind of invasion, any kind of move by moscow against ukraine, that there will be, in words of the united states, massive sanctions imposed. the next question will be the extent to which hybrid warfare would come into play. cyber attacks, for example, that s something i m told the two presidents will discuss. absolutely. thank you for that. a moment of uncertainty. let s go now to former secretary of defense and former c harks director. in your time in government, you
a clear insight in the way president putin thinks about all of this. nic, thank you so much. let s go to ukraine now where french president emmanuel macron is projecting some optimism actually after meeting with ukraine s president, but does president zelensky feel the same i think is a good question right now. cnn s melissa bell live in kyiv for us. melissa, what else did macron and zelensky say this morning? reporter: well, they were talking about the need for deescalation and grasping for any hope or sign that conversation or dialogue might be possible at this stage after the heat we ve seen the last couple of months between the united states and nato on one side and russia on the other. he has made some progress by insisting on the fact it is now time for russians and europeans to talk about new security guarantees regarding the european continent and changing the treaty so that they re fit
just last week i met with the mome secretary from the u.k. and other allies nations from the so-called five eyes. canada, new zealand, all coming together to put our resources together and say how can we can go after these eproceeds? how can we isolate russia further? we ve seenen an precedented amount of work together. that s to isolate russia, to isolate those elites who seek to bolster the russian regime and that s what you re seeing happening with this task force that the president announced last night and that we ve announced today. the deputy attorney general, thank you very much. so, let s go to ukraine and mclachlan. the situation on the ground is changing so rapidly across