we also know that this has been a real weekend of a flurry of diplomacy we are coming out of, president biden staying at the white house, having a national security meeting, a rare one on a sunday, in the situation room as u.s. officials have been paying close attention to those developments on the ground in ukraine. still leaving out dim hope for some type of a diplomatic resolution here, even as u.s. officials tell nbc news that at this point in time the u.s. believes that putin has already given an order that russian military units have been given orders to proceed down the pathway towards an invasion, the u.s. hoping now that this last-minute diplomacy could persuade the russians to pull back from the brink, willie. yeah. katty, that s the bottom line here, which is that the white house and the president, president biden are saying, sure, we re open to a summit to avert a war, but it is contingent on you not going into
covers the white house. josh, good morning. so you had president macron come out sort of trumpeting he had brokered a summit between putin and the white house. the white house said we have agreed in principle and it is contingent, of course, on putin not going into ukraine so let s wait and see what happens there. this morning, putin himself saying, well, not so fast. we will see if we re going to have the summit. what is the white house saying this morning? reporter: this was a remarkable bit of shadow diplomacy by the french president with president macron speaking to putin for what we believe was a conversation that lasted nearly two hours, then speaking to president biden for about 15 minutes, and then once again talking to president putin for a conversation that took place in the wee hours of the night in moscow. then after that the french coming out and saying they have this agreement in principle. as you point out, no one is, you know, putting a date on the calendar yet. i spo
just before the top of the hour, the united states capitol, a live look on this monday, february 21. katty kay is still with us. joe and mika have the morning off. we begin with the situation playing out overseas. u.s. intelligence shows russian military officials have been given a green light to invade ukraine, but america s leaders are trying to buy some time. president biden and vladimir putin have agreed in principle anyway to a summit to discuss the situation as long as moscow does not go ahead with an invasion. the white house already pouring a little cold water on that. this morning the kremlin doing the same. nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin has the latest for us from ukraine. reporter: a barrage of artillery fire increasing in war-ravaged donbas with more than 1,500 explosions in the
ukraine. meanwhile, what we re saying is you preparing to go into ukraine. reporter: yes, there s already a meeting on the books between tony blinken and foreign minister of russia, sergey lavrov. they want to get that one out of the way first before they commit to anything from the white house s point of view. i mean why commit to a summit if the russians really are in a position where they re going to go in. there is a difference of opinion i think to some degree here in europe where they want to push for diplomacy more. there s a resistance to the idea that war is inevitable. i spoke to a european official over the weekend who said to me, look, they still don t believe necessarily that this is going to happen, that there is a chance president putin will pull back, which is why you are seeing the european efforts with the german chancellor this afternoon, also scheduled to speak to vladimir putin. josh, it was also another thing that happened over the weekend i thought was interest
Washington and its NATO allies have targeted Russian financial institution, high net worth individuals, with sanctions and asset freezes, while Germany has put the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on hold.