Ukraine summit postponed after Biden cancels Germany visit

A summit at the US Ramstein military base in Germany will not take place later this week as scheduled, officials confirmed on Wednesday.

The meeting was to be attended by the leaders of Ukraine's allies and discuss further measures to aid in the country's defense against Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was expected to present his "victory plan" to end the Russian invasion of his country. 

The event, originally planned for October 12, has been postponed due to US President Joe Biden's decision to stay in the US and deal with the extreme weather situation in Florida.

"Announcements about future Ukraine Defense Contact Group meetings will be forthcoming," the US military said.

At the last Ramstein meeting in September, Zelenskyy had pressed for more weapons and the necessary clearance to use Western weapons further inside Russian territory.

Biden meeting with Scholz also nixed

Biden was due to travel to both Germany and Angola as some of his final foreign trips as president following his decision not to seek reelection in November.

Also planned for his trip to Germany was a four-way meeting with key European allies German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

Scholz's spokesman said on Wednesday that he regretted the cancellation, but understood the reason for it. Tuesday night, Scholz had said if Germany faced a similar storm he would have also canceled a trip abroad.

The US state of Florida is bracing for its second strong hurricane in as many weeks, as Hurricane Milton bore down on the southern state. Two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene cost some 220 lives in the eastern United States. Much of the debris left by Helene had not yet been cleared, leaving it in Milton's path as millions of people began evacuating.

es/sms (AFP, Reuters, dpa)