President Biden traveling to Europe for NATO summit

CNN– President Joe Biden is traveling to Brussels, Belgium Wednesday for an emergency NATO summit on the war in Ukraine. He will meet with NATO leaders and other allies Thursday. The White House says his main objectives are helping Ukrainians defend themselves, imposing and increasing costs on Russia and reinforcing the western alliance.

Ukraine says some hundred thousand people are trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol. The Ukrainian military is fighting back against Russian forces who are trying to encircle Kyiv, and other cities.

The UN says more than 3.5 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries to escape the fighting.