Biden, Scholz Talk Ukraine As Russia Launches 'Massive' Air Attack

U.S. President Joe Biden met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin ahead of joint talks on Ukraine with the leaders of Germany, France, and Britain as Russia continued its daily strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, launching on October 18 "one of the most massive" drone attacks on the country.

Biden's visit to Germany comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presented EU leaders and NATO top officials with a set of measures that he said would help his embattled country put an end to Russia's 31-month invasion.

SEE ALSO: Tense Times For Ukraine As Pressure Mounts On The Battlefield And Beyond

Biden called on Ukraine's allies to maintain their determination and back the embattled country as it heads into a difficult third winter of war

He praised Scholz for backing Kyiv and saying Berlin "rose to meet the moment" in the wake of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, welcoming Germany's raising its defense spending to a NATO target of 2 percent of its gross domestic product.

"You showed the wisdom to recognize that this war marked a turning point in history," Biden told Scholz before the two headed into their meeting, adding that "America and Germany are the two largest supporters of Ukraine in its fight for survival as a free and independent nation."

Biden started his visit with a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who presented him with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, Germany's highest award.

"When you were elected president, you restored Europe's hope in the transatlantic alliance literally overnight," Steinmeier told Biden -- in reference to the cooling of relations between Washington and Berlin during President Donald Trump's time in office.

SEE ALSO: EU Summit Eyes Frozen Russian Assets, Migration, And Moldova

After separate talks, Biden and Scholz will hold a joint meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the U.S. leader's compressed 24-hour visit as he nears the final months of his presidential term.

Biden, who arrived in Germany late on October 17, was originally due to visit the country last week on four-day visit that would have included him attending a meeting of the Ramstein group of some 50 allies of Ukraine to discuss and coordinate further military aid for the Ukraine as it faces a difficult winter ahead.

However, Biden canceled the trip in order to coordinate the U.S. response to Hurricane Milton.

National-security adviser Jake Sullivan has said Biden was seeking "to make our commitment to Ukraine sustainable and institutionalized for the long term."

Zelenskiy on October 17 outlined details of his "victory plan" to Ukraine's EU and NATO allies as he sought to convince them to give Ukraine an invitation to joint the military alliance -- a move that he argued would tamper down Moscow's will to continue the war and force it to negotiate in good faith.

SEE ALSO: Zelenskiy Presents His Ukraine 'Victory Plan' To EU, NATO Leaders

However, while declaring that Ukraine will eventually become a member, NATO has so far not given a clear deadline, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Kyiv's intention to join the alliance was one of the reasons for Russia's invasion.

NATO chief Mark Rutte, while reaffirming that NATO is working to get Ukraine ever closer to the alliance, stopped short of endorsing Zelenskiy's call for an invitation to join the alliance.

"Ukraine will be member of NATO, there is no doubt about it, and until that happens we will make sure that Ukraine has everything it needs to prevail," Rutte said, adding it was essential NATO continued to provide the country with military aid.

Earlier, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters that while Kyiv's path toward eventual NATO membership was irreversible, "we are not at the point right now where the alliance is talking about issuing an invitation in the short term."

Kyiv has been hard-pressed to rally its Western allies as its outmanned and outgunned forces have faced a slow but continuous advance of Russian troops in the east.

Furthermore, the upcoming U.S. presidential election raises concerns about how the two candidates, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, would deal with the war in Ukraine.

Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Zelenskiy during his presidential campaign, on October 17 blamed the Ukrainian leader for allegedly helping start the conflict, even though the war began with Russia's unprovoked invasion.

"That doesn't mean I don't want to help him [Zelenskiy] because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. The war's a loser," Trump said on the podcast of Patrick Bet-David.

In Ukraine, meanwhile, Russia launched one of its largest waves of drone strikes early on October 18 , the head on Kyiv's military administration, Serhiy Popko, reported.

"Russian troops carried out one of the most massive drone attacks on the civilian population and infrastructure of Ukraine. Enemy drones also threatened Kyiv. But thanks to the coordinated work of the defense forces, all drones moving toward the capital were neutralized," Popko wrote on Telegram.

There were no immediate reports of casualties during the attack on Kyiv, which lasted for more than 4 1/2 hours, Popko said.

Ukraine's air force said attacks targeted the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsya, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Poltava regions and air-raid alerts were still active in some regions. Ukrainian air defenses downed 80 out of the 135 drones launched by Russia, it said on Telegram.