The G7 leaders pledged on Saturday “to increase the cost of war” for Russia, two years to the date since Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine began.
In a statement released after a virtual summit to reaffirm all-round support for Kyiv, the leaders said: “We will continue to increase the cost of the Russian war, decrease its sources of income, and prevent its efforts to build its war machine, as demonstrated by the sanctions we have recently adopted.”
This meeting was the first for the leaders of the G7 countries (USA, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada) under Italian presidency.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni chaired the virtual meeting from Kyiv, alongside Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, both also currently in Kyiv.
The G7 leaders didn’t hesitate to call out China and Iran for their logistical support of Russia.
“We call on Iran to cease supporting the Russian military,” stated the G7 leaders. They also expressed “concern over Chinese companies transporting components for weapons and military production to Russia.”
North Korea also drew criticism, with the G7 condemning “firmly North Korean exports and provision to Russia of North Korean ballistic missiles” and called for an “immediate end to such activities”.
The G7 pledged to “take action against third-party actors materially supporting Russia’s war, including imposing new measures against entities […] in third countries” and called on “financial institutions not to support the Russian war machine”.
In the midst of Canada and Italy signing bilateral agreements with Ukraine – modelled on previous deals made by Germany and France – the G7 members urged Ukraine’s aid contributors to validate their financial contributions for 2024 without specifically mentioning the blockage of new American aid in the US Congress directly.
“We urgently request the approval of additional aid to meet Ukraine’s remaining budgetary needs in 2024,” they urged, a clear reference to the American blockage.
