working on an agreement that would allow more people to leave this terrible situation. and we ve seen that your teams are delivering supplies in ukraine and administering first aid throughout the country. talk to us about your mission more broadly in ukraine. we indeed have more than 600 staff on the ground of our own organization. we are working hard also, of course, with our partner of the ukrainian red cross. and our priority is really those most effected areas of the country in the east and the south is and intensifying at the priority is definitely life-saving assistance into some of the frontline areas, getting people out. we have done a number of these equations. most recently out of donbas.
questions about tanks and ways to fight the battle in two ways. is it to defend themselves or try to have a more offensive capability to push back and defeat russia? and there can be a different answer depending on how you look at the aid packages. it s more than $3 billion the u.s. has provided. partners in europe and elsewhere in nato have been supportive as well. is and the president is also looxing to answer the question of what to do about ukrainian refugees who want to come to the united states. the u.s. believes many want to settle in europe to be closer to family and closer to home but as you pointed out, he s got a new program to make a pathway for them to come here. andrea. and trying to explain how to cut that red tape and not have a replay of what happened with the afghan refugees. your old boss told us this is a pivotal time.
says the possibility of ukraine joining nato is a threat to russia. eva, what do we expect of this call between biden and the ukrainian president? reporter: this call is aimed to keep president zelensky in the loop. president biden expected to update him on the strategy of engaging with russia. of paramount concern is for the u.s. to emerge from this entire negotiation and episode with a diplomatic solution, without russia invading ukraine. now, in terms of what russia wants, russia wants legally binding skurpt guarantees. they want no membership for ukraine in nato and a rollback of military deployments in eastern urine. congressman adam schiff who chairs the intelligence committee, he was asked about this today, and he is very concerned about this. he believes the threats from vladimir putin are not hollow
thank you. some other big news up on the of the press conference is what president biden said about russia invading ukraine, and the consequences that will follow. it comes as the president s secretary of state is in the former soviet republic and will soon meet with his russian counterpart in geneva. we get the latest on the rising tensions from cbs margaret brennan. reporter: with russian troops now in belarus for war games, u.s. officials are increasingly concerned that ukraine s neighbor may help vladimir putin attack. my guess is he will move in. reporter: president biden said today he expects putin to defy him, but at great cost. so this is not all just a cake walk for russia. militarily, they have overwhelming superiority, but they ll pay a stiff price immediately, near-term, medium term, and long term if they do it. reporter: ukraine now says there are 127,000 russian troops encircling it, giving putin the