Biden urges NATO allies to continue support for Ukraine

US President Joe Biden has urged NATO allies to keep backing Ukraine in its war against Russia as he made his farewell visit to Germany just weeks before US elections.

As Ukraine faces a third winter at war and battlefield losses in the east, Kyiv and its allies fear a potential return of Donald Trump to the White House would mean reduced US military support.

Mr Biden said Western allies must "sustain our support... until Ukraine wins a just and sustainable peace.

"We're headed into a very difficult winter. We cannot let up."

In another worrying development for Ukraine, North Korea has decided to send a "large-scale" troop deployment to support Moscow's war, according to Seoul's spy agency.

It said 1,500 special forces were already in eastern Russia undergoing training.

During his one-day visit, Mr Biden met Chancellor Olaf Scholz, before French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived at the chancellery for four-way talks.

Yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his "victory plan" to the European Union and NATO, but his allies have not agreed to his request for immediate NATO membership.

Washington and London have also rejected Ukrainian requests for clearance to use donated long-range weapons against targets inside Russia. Berlin has refused to send its own long-range Taurus missile system.

"We are supporting Ukraine as powerfully as we can," said Mr Scholz.

"And at the same time we are making sure that NATO does not become a party to the war, so that this war does not turn into an even bigger catastrophe."

The United States has been by far the biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in 2022. Germany is the next biggest supplier.

Mr Biden earlier received a red-carpet welcome from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who awarded him Germany's highest honour for championing bilateral and transatlantic ties.

The German head of state honoured 81-year-old Biden as "a beacon of democracy" who had shown unwavering support for NATO and Ukraine "in our most dangerous moment since the Cold War".

US election looms

Mr Biden's visit comes as the campaign race heats up ahead of the 5 November election and as allies are nervously eyeing a possible Trump victory over Kamala Harris.

Mr Trump, who during his last term berated NATO allies, has opposed the level of US military support for Ukraine and would be expected to soften US criticism of Israel in its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Mr Steinmeier said that just a few years ago in the US-Germany relationship "the distance had grown so wide that we almost lost each other.

"When you were elected president, you restored Europe's hope in the transatlantic alliance literally overnight," Mr Steinmeier said, before awarding him the Grand Cross special class of the Order of Merit.

Mr Biden was originally due in Germany last week for a four-day state visit that would have included a major Ukraine defence meeting with Mr Zelensky.

He cancelled that trip to coordinate the response to Hurricane Milton, but was nonetheless at pains to make his valedictory Germany trip, albeit with a stripped-down programme squeezed into a one-day visit.

Among the guests Mr Biden met in Berlin was 102-year old Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlaender, who grew up in Berlin, was interned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, emigrated to the US and returned to her hometown in 2010.

"I'm actually honoured to be in your presence," an emotional Biden told her at the start of his speech.

Speaking later with Mr Scholz, Mr Biden praised Germany for "standing firm against a vicious surge of anti-Semitism, hatred and extremism we're witnessing today", labelling it "the old ghost in new garments".