Obama’s European Trip to Discuss Ukraine Crisis

Local Editor

Obama has begun his trip to European countries, including Poland, Belgium and France on Monday night, in an attempt to urge more pressure on Russia over its dispute on the Ukrainian crisis.

Obama first visits Poland, Ukraine's western neighbor, to meet with Eastern European leaders-including Ukraine's president-elect Petro Poroshenko, on Tuesday.

Then he heads to Brussels on Wednesday, for a G7 summit that will discuss maintaining the economic pressure on Russia.

On Thursday, he meets French President François Hollande in Paris. Then, he commemorates the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will attend the D-Day ceremonies, is due to meet with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Thursday. Obama also is scheduled to dine with Hollande that evening, but the White House said Obama and Putin will not hold formal meetings.

Obama's trip follows a major a speech at the US Military Academy last week in which he argued that American leadership in the world should be exercised mainly by diplomacy, multilateral action and economic pressure, as in Ukraine, rather than through military power.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team