summit. as ukraine is pushing to join the alliance, cnn is on the ground in lithuania where the president and key u.s. allies are preparing for their high-stakes talks. also tonight, new developments in the trump classified documents indictment. the trump team now facing a deadline to weigh in on the timing of the trial. this as the former president s co-defendant is accused of unnecessary delay by the special counsel. and parts of the northeastern united states are swamped by historic flooding, a once in a thousand-year rainfall swallowing cars in west point, new york. i ll speak with the new york governor, kathy hochul. this hour we ll discuss the state s emergency response. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. tonight, on the eve of a pivotal nato summit, we re learning that ukrainian president zelenskyy plans to make a personal appeal on ukraine s bid to join the alliance. he ll atte
number one finland borders with russia. then you have sweden, follow the waterways, a key access to the baltic sea. this is what vladimir putin did not want. he thought four years ago it would split nato. some might object. others might say we don t want to spend the time, the resources on this. this is a diplomatic victory for president biden, it is a snub at vladimir putin. putin didn t want nato expanded along russian borders. that is exactly what they re getting with this movement for finland and sweden. as you know it has an 800-mile border joining nato. it can t be overstated how significant that is when you look at what putin was trying to accomplish and what, in fact, he was getting right now. it is also significant as caitlin was noting that the biden administration, european officials didn t necessarily expect this was going to happen today. so the fact that they were able to pull this off is significant and president biden was engaged diplomatically on this. but
thinks there s fun while there is a war going on in europe. jill, nato is set to expand yet again with sweden getting the green light today from turkey. how much does all of this, this expansion of nato actually rattle putin? oh, i think a lot, wolf. i mean, you know, this is exactly what putin didn t want. you have unity, at least on this. you have a really quick movement by erdogan, completely changing, sorry, what he said just a couple of days ago, and, remember, you have that relationship, actually pretty tight with some problems between erdogan and putin so i think it s a good day for nato and a very bad day for vladimir putin. jill, let me follow up quickly. on that meeting between putin and the wagner chief, does that suggest prigozhin has a certain amount of leverage over the russian president? you know, i think prigozhin
number one finland borders with russia. then you have sweden, follow the waterways, a key access to the baltic sea. this is what vladimir putin did not want. he thought four years ago it would split nato. some might object. others might say we don t want to spend the time, the resources on this. this is a diplomatic victory for president biden, it is a snub at vladimir putin. putin didn t want nato expanded along russian borders. that is exactly what they re getting with this movement for finland and sweden. as you know it has an 800-mile border joining nato. it can t be overstated how significant that is when you look at what putin was trying to accomplish and what, in fact, he was getting right now. it is also significant as caitlin was noting that the biden administration, european officials didn t necessarily
not so new capabilities. things we know they ve been using effectively like javelins but they are designed to help them with the fight they are in now and will be in the donbas, in that eastern part of the ukraine where they are redoubling efforts so how witzers and 40,000 artillery and radar and mobile air defense radar systems, as well as more uav s and even some unmanned surface vessels that will help them with coastal defense in the black sea and the sea of azav. so we re folking this package much more closely on the fight today given what the russians have done in terms of reprioritizing their efforts in the east. you mentioned the donbas and the east and the reporting and the public references to u.s. intelligence about that being the focus. does the pentagon now view that as putin s goal for an off-ramp, to take part of the country and stop? it is very unclear right now. we don t know whether it is