Zelenskiy awaits new summit date after Biden postpones Germany trip

By Miranda Murray and Sabine Siebold

BERLIN (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he expected a new date for a summit of key allies to be agreed soon following the postponement of a planned gathering in Ramstein, Germany, because U.S. President Joe Biden was unable to join.

The White House said Biden needed to oversee preparations for Hurricane Milton and relief efforts after another hurricane last month killed more than 200 people.

"We understand that a new schedule may be prepared in the near future," Zelenskiy told a briefing in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.

The Ramstein group of Ukraine's arms donors had been set to convene for its highest level meeting ever on the sidelines of Biden's Oct. 10-13 state visit to Germany, which would have been the first U.S. state visit in nearly 40 years.

"The Oct. 12, 2024 event is postponed," the U.S. public affairs office at Ramstein Air Base said in an email to journalists. "Announcements about future Ukraine Defence Contact Group meetings will be forthcoming."

The meeting aimed to underscore unwavering support for Kyiv against Russia's invasion at a time when Ukrainian armed forces are under huge pressure.

Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Kyiv would present its "victory plan" to its allies in what would have been a test of Kyiv's vision on ending the war with Russia.

"At Ramstein, the victory plan will be presented to both leaders and defence ministers. Many things depend on the defence ministers, on this infrastructure," Zelenskiy said on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy is travelling in Europe to meet allies this week, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, two sources told Reuters.

Germany is Ukraine's second-biggest financial backer, though Scholz has balked at requests to equip Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles.

Zelenskiy is also expected to meet Pope Francis and hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during his stay in Rome this week.

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The postponement of the summit does not mean Ukraine will slip down the agenda, one analyst said.

"It was clear that Biden had to send the signal that he was taking care of domestic policy - so close to the (U.S.) elections," said Stefan Mair, director of German foreign policy think tank SWP said. "I don't see this (postponement) as downgrading the importance of Ukraine."

A German defence ministry spokesperson said defence ministers aimed to meet within the Ramstein format this month but no decision had been made yet on when.

"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 (of leaders) soon and an exchange of views," German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit told a briefing.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Washington gathered like-minded nations at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, southwestern Germany, establishing a group of some 50 countries whose defence ministers meet regularly to match Kyiv's arms requests with pledges of donors.

(Reporting by Barbara Erling in Warsaw, Andreas Rinke, Kirsti Knolle, Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Tom Balmforth in Kyiv, Yulia Dysa in Gdansk writing by Alan Charlish; editing by Mark Heinrich, Philippa Fletcher, Jonathan Oatis and Gareth Jones)