Vice President Kamala Harris will hold a series of meetings with U.S. allies over the next few days when she travels to Germany for a gathering of national security officials from all over the world.
Harris will lead the U.S. delegation at the Munich Security Conference, which opens Friday and runs through Sunday. The vice president is scheduled to address the group and will emphasize U.S. solidarity with NATO and its commitment to Ukraine amid the threat of a Russian invasion.
Harris is expected to meet with several world leaders, including Stoltenberg, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Blinken also plans to attend the conference. Blinken is expected to reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and plans to update allies on diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the crisis, as well as punitive measures the U.S. is prepared to take should Russia invade its neighbor.
An estimated14,000 people on both sides have died in fighting between Ukraine and Russia-backed rebels since 2014, when Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea region on the Black Sea and threw its weight behind separatists in two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. People on the ground stand to lose the most if the conflict escalates. Washington and its allies have ruled out sending NATO troops to Ukraine.
But Americans are also bracing for the worst as the world waits to see whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine.
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