Biden urges West to sustain Ukraine support as US election looms

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By Jeff Mason and Sarah Marsh

BERLIN (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden urged the West on Friday to sustain its support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion as Kyiv faces a bleak winter and a looming U.S. presidential election raises worries about the strength of Washington’s own resolve.

Biden was speaking to reporters before holding closed-door talks with ally German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a one-day trip to Berlin to discuss matters ranging from Ukraine to the expanding conflict in the Middle East.

“As Ukraine faces a tough winter, we must, we must sustain our resolve,” Biden said in a statement. “And I know the cost is heavy, but make no mistake, it bears in comparison to the cost of living in a world where aggression prevails, where large states attack and bully smaller ones simply because they can.”

He said he would discuss with Scholz efforts to increase military support for Ukraine and shore up its civilian energy infrastructure “by unlocking the value of frozen Russian assets”. They would also discuss the Middle East conflict.

Biden told reporters before departing Germany that there was no consensus for giving Ukraine long-range weapons that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been requesting from Western nations for months to conduct deeper strikes into Russia.

“Right now, there’s no consensus for long-range weapons,”

Biden said.

Biden’s trip comes just 2-1/2 weeks before the U.S. presidential vote, in which former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, is seeking reelection in a close race against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.

Trump has signalled he would be more reluctant than Biden to continue to support Ukraine, which could deprive Kyiv of its biggest military and financial backer.

He has also indicated that U.S. aid to allies in the NATO western military alliance would come with conditions attached.

Earlier on Friday, Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier referred to previously strained European-U.S. ties under Trump’s first 2017-2021 presidency during a ceremony to award Biden Germany’s highest order of merit.

“Just a handful of years ago, the distance had grown so wide that we almost lost each other,” he said of Europe and the United States. “When you were elected president, you restored Europe’s hope in the transatlantic alliance literally overnight.”

Steinmeier said the NATO alliance was indispensable.

“So in the months to come, I hope that Europeans remember America is indispensable for us. And I hope that Americans remember your allies are indispensable for you,” he added.

US ELECTION LOOMING

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron joined Biden and Scholz on Friday afternoon for talks focused largely on how to end the fighting in Ukraine as Russian forces advance in the east.

“We discussed how to speed up our support for Ukraine” Starmer told reporters afterwards. “So as Ukraine enters a difficult winter, it is important to say we’re with you.”

The leaders also discussed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages and immediate access for humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, he said.

“The world will not tolerate any more excuses on humanitarian assistance,” he said.

That Biden paid what could be his last visit to Europe as president to Berlin is testament to the close working relationship he has with Scholz.

Biden built trust with Germany at the start of his term and looked the other way for a while on the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany, said Sudha David-Wilp of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

That closer relationship enabled Washington to work with Berlin after Russia invaded Ukraine, with German spending on defence swiftly raised to meet the NATO target of 2% of GDP while Russian gas imports were slashed.

Berlin also played a critical role in a prisoner swap in August between Russia and the West that saw the release of U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan from Russian detention.

Biden urged Berlin to keep up its defence spending “because it matters”, calling Germany the United States’ “closest and most important of allies”.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh, Jeff Mason, Andreas Rinke and Matthias Williams; Additional Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, John Irish, Sachin Ravikumar and Mujiav M; Editing by Gareth Jones, Christina Fincher, Angus MacSwan and Rod Nickel)