Ukrainian President Volodemir Zelensky leaves his country for the first time since the war began,

making a secret trip to the White House and Capitol Hill ahead of a crucial vote on military aid.

We'll have a preview.

Plus, we'll get to the big takeaways from the impending release of former President Donald Trump's tax returns.

As a preliminary report highlights hundreds of millions of dollars in questionable tax deductions.

And that comes as we're just hours away from the release of the January 6 committee's full report.

We'll lay out what else we could learn today.

Good morning and welcome to way too early on this Wednesday, December 21st. I'm Jonathan Lemire. Thanks for starting your day with us. It is a huge

news day, and we will begin with the developing news overnight. Ukrainian president Volodemir Zelensky

is en route to the United States, tweeting this message at 1 a.m., announcing he'll attend

meetings in Washington today, meet with President Joe Biden, and deliver

a speech to Congress. It's a trip of great significance, as Zelensky has not publicly left

Ukraine for any reason since Russia invaded in February. While he's here, a senior Biden administration

official tells NBC News that President Biden will announce that the Patriot missile battery Ukraine has wanted for its defense will be included in a new aid package to the war-torn nation.

That official also says that U.S. troops will train Ukrainian forces in another country before the Patriots are then deployed in Ukraine,

insisting that no U.S. troops will be involved at that point.

Senior Biden administration officials say this trip by Zelensky has been the work for only a few

days, with the president extending a formal invitation on the 14th when the two men spoke on the phone.

Zelensky accepted the invitation

this past Sunday, while the U.S. consulted with him on security parameters for the trip.

We will have a lot more on this significant trip a little later on way too early.

But we have other major headlines as well.

...