US President Joe Biden has opted out of a meeting between Western arms donors and Ukrainian officials in Germany, to deal with a powerful hurricane due to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had touted the gathering scheduled for Saturday as “historic” for his country’s fight against Russia. Last month, he traveled to the US to present Biden with his ‘victory plan’. In his recent statements, Zelensky has suggested that Ukrainian proposals will be finalized on the basis of feedback from sponsors this week.
Biden announced his decision to remain stateside on Tuesday morning, telling journalists that his administration would instead focus on dealing with Hurricane Milton. The Category 5 storm is expected to make landfall in Florida late on Wednesday, two weeks after Hurricane Helene battered several US states, killing at least 230 people and leaving a path of devastation.
Biden had intended to fly to Germany on Thursday for a three-day trip, before going to Angola.
The ‘Ramstein format’ consultations were scheduled to take place just four weeks before the US presidential election, with polls almost tied between the two main candidates – Republican nominee Donald Trump and the Democratic hopeful, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Supporters of Kiev have voiced concern that if Trump returns to office, he could drastically change US policy on Ukraine, potentially forcing an “ugly peace” on the Zelensky government. The Biden administration has reportedly been working to “Trump-proof” Western aid to Kiev.
Russian officials have argued that no amount of Western help can change the balance of power on the battlefield, and that by refusing to make compromises Zelensky and Kiev’s backers are simply raising the human cost of the conflict, but not its outcome. Moscow views the hostilities as a US-led proxy war on Russia, which it claims Washington intends to wage “to the last Ukrainian”.