The White House announced this afternoon that President Joe Biden will not attend the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany and will not travel to Germany for meetings Oct. 10-12. The statement itself was barely longer than its internet address: “Given the projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton, President Biden is postponing his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for and the response to Hurricane Milton, in addition to the ongoing response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, disappointed by not getting Biden to openly sign on to sending long-range missiles deep into Russia, both on Sept. 13 when pressed by the U.K.’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and on Sept. 26 when he, himself, beseeched Biden, has been staking everything on an Oct. 12 session with Biden in Germany. He was to make the pitch of his life for his much-vaunted “Victory Plan”—but it may be that on this third swing, he has struck out.
Earlier in the day, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had hammered home Moscow’s deadly serious threat of a possible nuclear response to the reckless “deep strike” option pushed by the West’s war party, specifically with reference to the upcoming Ramstein gathering. On Russia’s Channel One TV network, Lavrov explained that Moscow would trigger a “contingency plan” outlined by President Vladimir Putin in the event that Ukraine receives permission to use Western-supplied long-range missiles for strikes deep inside Russia. As RT explained, Lavrov was commenting on the “upcoming meeting of Kiev’s foreign arms donors, which Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been touting as ‘historic.’”
Lavrov made clear that the Russian government is not impressed by various statements, formulations, and equivocations on the West’s “deep strike” policy. He said that Moscow does not follow statements on the issue as it already has a response prepared: “As soon as this decision is taken, if it is taken, we will learn that, and the contingency mentioned by Vladimir Putin will already be in action.”
Otherwise, Zelenskyy had a tough day, as his office announced the cancellation of the so-called “Peace Summit,” scheduled for November, without announcing a future date; and he had more bad news regarding the Russian advances along his 1,000-mile front lines.