DUBROVNIK, Croatia: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Wednesday in Croatia for a summit with Balkan leaders as his country pushes for more military aid as it struggles to repel Russian advances.

But a key meeting with international allies planned for Saturday was postponed after US President Joe Biden called off a planned visit to Europe as millions were warned to leave their homes in Florida because of Hurricane Milton.

Zelensky announced his arrival in the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik on the X social media platform and said the summit “will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer... as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO.” Zelensky has stepped up a bid to rally backing from allies amid doubts about future US support after the November presidential election.

The heads of state, premiers and foreign ministers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey were to join Zelensky and Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at the talks.

The summit will show that the “whole region supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the fight for freedom”, Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said. He pledged continuous “solidarity with Ukraine... including military support”.

The gathering in the Adriatic resort is the third “Ukraine-Southeast Europe” summit. At the last one in Albania in February, Zelensky called for greater backing to help fend off Russian forces.

He has been pressing for more aid to counter Russia’s advantage in manpower and ammunition. Zelensky also wants clearance to use long-range weapons supplied by allies including the United States to strike military targets deep inside Russia. A joint declaration at the end of the summit is likely to condemn Russian aggression, support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Zelensky’s peace plan, push to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine and support Kiev’s European integration and NATO membership, according to the media.

Zelensky was also to attend an international meeting of more than 50 countries to discuss military support for Ukraine in Germany on Saturday. But the meeting at the Ramstein air base “is postponed”, the US military said in a statement, without specifying a new date.

Zelensky had also pressed for greater military support at the last Ramstein meeting in September.

The US presidential election in November could compromise the billions of dollars of support that Ukraine receives from its biggest backer. Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly defended Russian President Vladimir Putin and voiced scepticism over US funding for Kyiv.

Plenkovic, who carried out his third visit to Ukraine since the invasion in February 2022, said that in the past two years EU member Croatia’s aid to Ukraine, mostly military, totalled 300 million euros ($329 million). The Balkans summit is Zelensky’s first visit to Croatia.

The Ukrainian leader is expected to sign an agreement with Plenkovic on long-term support and cooperation between the two countries. It will focus on Croatia’s experiences in prosecuting war crimes and removing mines after the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

But the meeting comes amid a domestic row between Croatia’s conservative government and President Zoran Milanovic over Ukraine. Milanovic refused this month to back the government’s proposal to send Croatian officers on a NATO mission in Germany to train Ukrainian soldiers.

The president, who has limited powers but is the armed forces commander, said he would not allow Croatian soldiers to “participate in activities that push Croatia into war”. The prime minister accused Milanovic of acting against national interests. He called on lawmakers to reverse the president’s decision, which would require a two-thirds majority in a parliament vote. – AFP