Western leaders have gathered in Brussels for the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, where the defence alliance’s leaders will agree to ramp up military forces on Europe’s eastern flank.

The back-to-back emergency meetings of Nato, the Group of Seven and the European Union are taking place to draw up plans for ramping up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the invasion of Ukraine enters a second month. President Joe Biden is expected to attend all three meetings.

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America will expand its sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, targeting members of the country’s parliament and the central bank’s gold reserves. In parallel, Washington will increase its humanitarian assistance by taking in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and providing $1 billion in food, medicine and water, indeed the essentials of life. The US President is expected to push allies to enact new sanctions on Russia, which has already seen its economy crippled by a steady stream of bans, boycotts and penalties over the past four weeks.

While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia, that unity will possibly be tested as the costs of war hinge on the global economy. “What we would like to hear is that the resolve and unity that we’ve seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters on Air Force One en route to Brussels. The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country’s economy, while the head of the European Union’s executive arm has called on the US to increase deliveries of liquefied natural gas so that the 27-nation bloc could reduce its dependence on Russian gas. Speaking at the European Parliament ahead of Biden’s visit, Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was seeking a commitment for additional LNG supplies from the US “for the next two winters”.

The EU imports 90 per cent of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40 per cent of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. Mr Sullivan told reporters that the issue has been a “substantial” topic and the subject of “intense back and forth” in recent days and that Washington was looking for ways to “surge” LNG supplies to Europe to help make up for supply disruptions.

The United States has already banned the import of Russian oil. The White House is “going to try and show solidarity with its allies and with Ukraine” during the meetings. The influx of refugees is another prickly issue that will feature in deliberations.