EVIAN-LES-BAINS (France) (AFP) – G7 leaders agreed on Tuesday to intensify pressure on Russia to end more than four years of war against Ukraine, with US President Donald Trump saying Moscow should “make a deal”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joined the summit at the French resort of Evian-les-Bains, with Ukraine seen as holding up well on the battlefield but its cities still the target of deadly Russian attacks in a conflict that has now lasted longer than World War I.
The summit of the G7 group of world powers notably brought Zelensky face-to-face with Trump, who has sought to reach out to Russian President Vladimir Putin but also showed signs of losing patience with Moscow. “Leaders decided today to increase the pressure on Russia through sanctions on gas and oil,” a French diplomatic source said after the talks. The leaders also agreed there “is a dynamic on the ground that benefits Ukraine”, added the source, who asked not to be named. Host President Emmanuel Macron has invited Zelensky to stay until the end of the three-day summit on Wednesday so that he can meet Trump and the other G7 leaders.
European leaders will be keen to remind Trump of the importance of pushing Russia to accept peace on Ukraine’s terms, and not pressure Kyiv into making concessions to Moscow. “Russia should make a deal” to end the war against Ukraine, Trump said after meeting Zelensky. He pointed to the high casualties on both sides in the conflict, the deadliest on European soil since World War II. “The whole thing is ridiculous. So, yeah, I’m going to do whatever I can,” Trump added.
Zelensky said in a post on X after meeting G7 leaders that Ukraine’s priorities were “clear”, including increasing the number of air defence missiles, a winter support package, and strengthening pressure on Russia. “It’s great that everybody understands that Russia is not winning, and we have to push Putin to end this war,” the Ukrainian leader said at a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Zelensky had Monday urged a “decisive and substantive” response from the G7 leaders after the latest wave of Russian strikes, which killed at least 11 people and sparked a fire at a landmark Kyiv cathedral. He revealed Putin had rejected an offer of a meeting at the G7 but said he had also suggested to Trump that he could meet Putin in the United States.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom is imposing a raft of new sanctions against Russia, including on tankers that transport LNG, in a bid to pressure Moscow into halting the war against Ukraine. “Working with our G7 allies, we will continue to increase the pressure on Putin and his circle of collaborators until Russia’s war machine is brought to a halt and peace returns to our continent,” said Starmer. Carney meanwhile said Canada was announcing new sanctions against 160 entities linked to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, used to dodge Western sanctions on Russian fossil fuels and other goods.
Iran remains a key topic at the summit, with allies eager to question Trump over his deal with the Islamic republic to end the Middle East war. Trump said the United States was under “no obligation” to invest in Iran after the deal, adding that its main focus was that Iran would not acquire a nuclear weapon and that “all hell” would “rain down” on the country if it did. After former supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the war on February 28, Trump described the new leadership in Tehran as “very rational people” who were “nice to deal with” and “not radicalised”.
Trump also said he had suggested to Israel that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa should deal with Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia as the Israeli campaign was causing too many casualties. Sharaa “is very good with Hezbollah, does not like them”, Trump said, adding that the Syrian leader — an ex-jihadist — is “no boy scout”.
© 2024 AFP
