EVIAN/MOSCOW: 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 faceto-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.
‘Russia not winning’ European leaders will be 1(een 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 confiict, 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.
Zelenslcy 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 urged a ‘decisive and substantive’ response from the G7 leaders after the latest wave of Russian strikes, which killed at least 11 people and sparl(ed a fire at a landmark Kyiv cathedral.
He reveale d Putin had rejecte d 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.-Agencies