Why Biden cancelled leader-level meeting on aid to Ukraine and whether it will be rescheduled

The historic Ramstein meeting, the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, scheduled for 12 October, has been cancelled. The closed leader meeting, planned on the sidelines of the event, will not take place either. This meeting was publicly tied to hopes in Kyiv for "historic breakthrough decisions."

US President Joe Biden not only cancelled his trip to Germany but decided to cancel the event altogether. Should we believe the official US reasoning that this change of plans was solely due to Hurricane Milton, which is approaching Florida? Or was the real reason related to Ukraine itself?

Will the White House return to the ideas that have now been postponed? When might this become possible? Read more in the article by Sergiy Sydorenko, the European Pravda editor - Promises swept away by the wind: Why Biden cancelled Ramstein and what it means for Ukraine.

Advertisement: First, a quick note on why the attention to the cancelled meeting in Germany is not exaggerated. Even though Ramstein is a regular event, with 24 meetings held over nearly two and a half years, the upcoming meeting was set to be special. For the first time, it was to involve a meeting of national leaders of its members, including US President Joe Biden.

The reason for this unprecedented high-level meeting was also clear. Among the topics for discussion was Ukraine's "victory plan" and the approval of strikes on Russia using long-range Western missiles. However, there will be no decisions or even discussions now.

The October leaders' meeting has been cancelled at the US initiative. There is no official explanation by the US side. On Tuesday, the White House announced that Biden would not travel to Germany due to the approaching tropical storm Milton towards the US coast.

Since the US had initially ruled out hybrid meeting formats, many are questioning whether the White House reasoning is genuine. In short - yes. The visit was genuinely cancelled because of the hurricane.

It was not a "protest," "punishment for Ukraine," "unwillingness to support Zelenskyy," or anything like that. However, there are nuances that send troubling signals to Ukraine. Essentially, the leaders' meeting on military aid to Ukraine had to be cancelled due to pressure from US elections and particularly from Donald Trump.

Trump has been convincing his voters that Biden and the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris were supposedly indifferent to the destruction caused by Hurricane Helen and the people affected by it, and that Biden failed to respond to calls from governeurs of the affected states. These accusations are now being discussed in the media. So the White House is focused on disproving them.

Under these circumstances, it is unacceptable for Biden to leave the country just as it recovers from the effects of another storm, as this would give Trump new leverage for public attacks. One of the fundamental issues with the Ukraine-Russia war in the US is the lack of public demand for supporting Ukraine. As for the period after 6 November, much will depend on the election outcome.

If Kamala Harris is elected as the new US president, Biden will have a two-month window at the end of his presidency to create his political legacy, including bold initiatives to support Ukraine. In the event of a Trump victory, this opportunity will likely be lost. In that scenario, Ramstein on 12 October may have truly been the last window of opportunity.

But Hurricane Milton swept it away.

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