t the lead starts right now. ukraine is pushing, pushing, pushing. cnn is live as the 31 nations meet. and why special counsel is accusing donald trump s right-hand man of trying to delay the prosecution of him. and the once in a thousand year rainfall behind devastating flooding in parts of america ears noamerica s northeast, trapping drivers in cars and on roads and forcing some to swim to safety. we start today with our word lead. the president in lithuania with one goal on his list unity. ukraine will be the main focus of the two-day meeting but for a group that has been, frankly, stunningly united, there are public fractures in the alliance starting to emerge, ones president biden will have to fix over the next few days, mainly overs decision to send cluster bombs to the front line, one that has been banned by most of the allies who will be sitting around president biden at that table in lithuania. they will have to decide when and how they will let ukraine join
Future security assistance for ukraine. experts tell cnn they re watching to sigee if that inclus more f-16 fighter jets. allies are making it clear they re not going to be joining the u.s. when it comes to sending controversial cluster bombs, which can fail and then detonate years later threatening lives. the white house continuing to defend the decision president biden said wasn t an easy decision but was the one he reached. what s the reaction on the ground? the ukrainians are quite happy to be receiving them. this is something they ve been is asking about for quite some time. the arguments that we have heard time and time again from ukrainian officials would later be echoed by the biden administration, essentially that these cluster munitions will only be used against russian troops, they won t be used in
Comments were regrettable because it focusses on what nato is not doing for ukraine. do you have agree that s a big distraction? yes and no. i think that president biden is known for sometimes just saying exactly what he s thinking, but let s also keep in mind that president zelenskyy has said publicly that he does not expect ukraine to join nato until after the war. and what he s looking for are concrete steps. but i get the point that by making that statement you are distracting everybody from the fact of all the things that need to be done at the summit in terms of creating that very concrete road map. and you know my concern is that they won t have enough detail in that plan. steve, do you think president zelenskyy is going to go to the nato summit? and do you think naters are going to make them any kind of assurances about ukraine membership? yes and yes. i think he will go but i think any assurances that are given to
To be made toward membership. reporter: there could be some news on fast tracking ukraine s entry into nato. it was tweeted there has been some agreement, that ukraine coul could skip some tsteps in joinig nato. that is something that president zelenskyy has been pushing for, they want the invitation or a concrete timetable for when they re going to be able to join the alliance. this is existential for them. joining the alliance means having the support of every nato country behind them should russia attack them in the future after there is a peace. but that is something that the alliance still has not come to an agreement on. as we heard president biden say over the weekend he does not think right now that ukraine is ready to join nato. he believes they still need to make a number of reforms before
Stunningly united, there are public fractures in the alliance starting to emerge, ones president biden will have to fix over the next few days, mainly overs decision to send cluster bombs to the front line, one that has been banned by most of the allies who will be sitting around president biden at that table in lithuania. they will have to decide when and how they will let ukraine join nato, a move that cannot be made until the war is over. let s start with cnn s nic robertson in london where president biden met with a key al ally to kick off his trip. natasha, ukrainian leaders have been making it clear. they are looking for fatnato members to take concrete steps