sanctions. arlette saenz is at the white house. nic robertson in moscow. what do we know about today s national security meeting? president biden convened a rare sunday meeting of his national security council in the situation room as the u.s. continues to plot its next steps as russia and ukraine appear to be on the brink of war. we saw several top cabinet officials arriving here at the white house, including defense secretary lloyd austin, antony blinken, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff milley, as well as national security adviser jake sullivan. vice president harris was also expected to join via secure video lines as she is currently traveling back from munich. this all comes as several of those officials had spent part of the weekend over in europe meeting with allies as this crisis between russia and ukraine continues to brew. now secretary of state antony blinken earlier today told our colleague dana bash that that
it s not forcible for us. there is no space for us to retreat. well, tensions along the ukraine border escalated even further today with military officials in belarus saying that planned war drills with russian forces scheduled to end today will go on indefinitely. joining us now, nbc s josh lederman, and hadley gamble joins us from munich. right now the president is sitting down with his national security team. what can you tell us about the nature of this meeting? reporter: a whole host of top cabinet members we ve seen arriving in the last few hours for this meeting, alex, including secretary of defense lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken, boat of whom just got back from traveling in europe, where they were attempting last-minute diplomacy to try to avert a war. this rare sunday meeting of the national security council is an opportunity for president biden to get briefed by those aides about what took place in munich
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until the last minute there s an option to for him to pull back. we re trying to prevent a war. adding to the pressure, russian troops continue their build up along ukraine border. when estimated 30,000 russian forces still in belarus. with me now is the host of the black diplomats pod cast and recently been on the ground in ukraine. also with me the national security reporter for the washington post. as u.s. intel shows russian military officials have been given orders to invade ukraine. biden and harris met with the national security counsel today. what s the meeting which usually wouldn t occur on a sunday. signal to you about remains hopes for diplomacy with putin. it signals u.s. officials are at the highest alert i have seen them since the crisis. you have the rare sunday meeting in the national security counsel. these are biden s top folks. you have the cia director. long time veteran diplomat.
biden s comments came after intelligence showed russian military was given the go ahead on invasion. it is coming as president biden wraps up a rare sunday meeting with his security council moments ago in the situation room. discussing the latest buildup of russian troops along the ukrainian border. let s go to josh lederman at the white house. a couple things to tick through. you and i spoke in the last hour. a lot has changed since then, especially the president s tiktok over the next 24 hours. we re getting a short, a brief, but a readout on the national security meeting. talk us through it. reporter: let s start with the president s schedule. the last time i spoke to you, i let you know the white house had abruptly announced president biden was no longer going to stay here in washington as planned today. he was actually going to go home to wilmington tonight to spend presidents day at his home