hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching cnn newsroom and i m rosemary church. just ahead, aid groups around the world are rushing to help turkey and syria after monday s deadly earthquake. i ll speak with the head of the norwegian refugee council, about the efforts to help survivors. plus, parts of the southern u.s. are surveying damage after severe storms ripped through the area. we re live at the cnn weather center with the latest. and after surprise visits to the u.k. and france, the ukrainian president is headed to belgium where he s been invited to an e.u. summit. we re live in brussels and london, on zelensky s unannounced diplomatic tour of europe. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom, with rosemary church. thanks for being with us. the death toll from the devastating earthquake in turkey and syria has nearly doubled in just the past 24 hours. now, more than 16,000. president erdogan
conflict in ukraine can bog down into a years long french war fair of attrition, sort of like the wirs ford first world war. and that will undermine the support. president zelensky will address all of the leaders arriving for the summit. likely, will address the european parliament, as well. nic robertson, many thanks to you. let s bring in claire sebastian, live from london. let s go back. president zelensky was there in the united kingdom. he was well received there as he was in france. let s focus in on what was achieved and agreed upon when he was in the u.k. reporter: this came alongside an announcement from the u.k. that they were going to expand their training program to include pilots and marines.
allies to promise to train ukrainian fighter pilots. all this coming at a crucial moment in the war. president zelensky believes they are running out of time as russia ramps up activities on the front line. the russian embassy in london make it clear they are not happy about this development. saying they are actively looking whether to send fighter jets. thanks to claire sebastian joining us live from london. coming off a high from his state of the union address, the u.s. president is hitting key swing states ahead of a possible announcement on whether he will run for re-election. plus, severe storms and possible concerned tornadoes lel of devastation in the southern u.s. we ll look at the damage and show you a suspected twist they re was caught on video.
conflict zone. there s been war here for more than 11 years. the northwest is under arm ld possession groups but the conflict line goes in the middle of the earthquake area. large parts of the earthquake zone is under government control in syria. my organization is on both sides, among the few that can work from both sides. and we re now scaling up on all sides of the conflict lines, with what we can purchase locally, which is not much. but it s some. with what we can get across the border from all of the neighboring countries to syria. but we re also trying to go cross-line. conflict line at various points. exactly. last hour, i was talking to a person that was saying his organization, like yours, there are no borders.
surprise visit to paris on wednesday. the ukrainian leader met with mr. macron and the german chancellor. both leaders colleged military aid for ukraine. they pledge that will continue for as long as it s needed. and president zelensky says their support can make a huge difference in the war. take a listen. translator: france and germany have the potential to be game-changers. the sooner ukraine manages to get long-range weapons and modern planes, the stronger our coalition will be. mr. zelensky made that request during a stop in london on wednesday, while visiting a british military facility. he says ukraine s battlefield priorities are to obtain more armored vehicles, longer-range missiles and fighter jets. our correspondents are tracking all of the developments. we begin with nic robertson who