MUNICH — Washington descended on Munich against a backdrop of dire warnings threatening to wrench Ukraine apart.
An attack by Moscow on Kyiv could plunge Europe into crisis, killing tens of thousands of Ukrainians and sending many more fleeing. The response promised by NATO allies would upturn the continent’s strongest economies.
At the annual defense conference, attendees kept one eye on the White House as pressure mounted on the defense alliance to boost its support for the former Soviet republic and where President Joe Biden continued his diplomatic engagements with allies.
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The United States and European allies have warned for days that a conflict is nearing, with officials rebuking Russia’s assertion this week that it was seeking to deescalate.
But Munich was quiet Friday morning, on a seeming six-hour delay from Washington.
As dawn broke, the White House said the president would speak with trans-Atlantic allies. The president also dialed into a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and members of the 40-person congressional delegation and will later address the nation on the Ukraine standoff.
At the same time, stark videos that claimed evacuation efforts were underway in some parts of Ukraine captured fears there.
On Friday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confronted Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, telling them that Ukraine did not have the weaponry needed to defend itself from Russia.
“We’re ready to fight; we’re ready to defend our families, our states, our cities, our citizens — we need support,” he said.
Klitschko repeated a claim about Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament in the early 1990s. And he threw a dig at Germany, thanking it for providing his country with 5,000 helmets, an offer that drew mockery last month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet with Harris on Saturday, but the high-level diplomatic encounter has been thrown into question, as the Biden administration wondered if it was wise to leave the country, four people told NBC News.
Asked about this, Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki declined to say whether the White House had told Zelenskyy directly not to go and said the White House would leave the decision up to Zelenskyy.
“I’d reiterate it’s a decision that is up to him to make. That is what we would convey privately as well,” she said.
As fears of an invasion mount, some worry that there is little time to act.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton said that among NATO allies, there is a feeling that “we could be on the precipice of a true disaster.”
“At this conference, not just in the U.S. delegation, but among all our NATO allies, there is a real sense of foreboding doom that the invasion is coming and likely coming within days,” Moulton told WGBH from Munich.
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The Democrat described a scenario where “if Putin is not stopped here, we don’t know where he’ll go next.”
NATO is not bound by treaty to protect Ukraine, but the country is pushing for membership into the coalition that would ensure that.
