An international summit on Ukraine where Volodymyr Zelenskyy was going to present a “victory plan” to western leaders has been formally postponed – though the Ukrainian president will try to organise a tour of European capitals instead.
Organisers said that the Saturday meeting of about 20 world leaders at the US Ramstein airbase in Germany would be rescheduled, a day after Biden had said he had to stay at home to respond to Hurricane Milton’s landfall in Florida.
Ukrainian sources said that Zelenskyy would travel to meet the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin on Friday – and potentially go on to visit other leaders as part of what sources described as a “European tour”.
German officials also promised that another leaders’ meeting to discuss Ukraine would be held soon, though it is not clear if it will happen before the US presidential election in November, which pits military aid sceptic Donald Trump against a more supportive Kamala Harris.
Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesperson for the German government, said: “It is true that the national security advisers are in close contact with each other and are also coordinating closely on the issue of Ukraine … there should be a face-to-face meeting soon and an exchange of views.”
The Ramstein summit was to be a centrepiece of a four-day trip by Biden to Germany, where Zelenskyy was to lobby to use long-range missiles inside Russia and to be given more air defence systems, in a fresh attempt to fend off Moscow’s aggression.
But it was also an opportunity for Ukraine to present proposals to bring a halt to the fighting – though it is unclear how that can be achieved. Russia is continuing to gain ground gradually in eastern Ukraine, and the Kremlin is hoping that if Trump wins, billions of military support will be stopped.
There had also been speculation that the meeting would discuss concrete steps on how Ukraine could eventually become a member of Nato, but any extra commitments were not expected to amount to immediate membership and direct military support.
Those due to attend the summit included Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, but once Biden said he could not go, their presence was in doubt. Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, pulled out earlier on Wednesday before the postponement was announced.
