G7: We will stand by Ukraine for as long as necessary (upd)

LAST UPDATE: 14.20

G7 leaders on Monday vowed to support Ukraine “for as long as necessary”, stepping up sanctions against Russia and backing security commitments to Kyiv as part of a post-war settlement, Reuters reported.

“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and will stand by Ukraine as long as necessary,” the G7 summit said in a statement.

Its G7 members are determined to reduce the Kremlin’s revenue, for example from gold exports, due to the invasion of Ukraine, and will continue to target the circumvention of sanctions.

The G7 will also extend targeted sanctions to further restrict Russia’s access to basic services and technologies.

Draghi: If Ukraine is defeated, all democracies will be defeated

The G7 countries are united with Ukraine because a defeat in its war against Russia would be a defeat for all democracies, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told group leaders.

“We are united with Ukraine because if Ukraine loses, all democracies will lose. If Ukraine loses, it will be more difficult to argue that democracy is an effective model of governance,” Draghi was quoted as saying. the Prime Minister’s Office.

Solts: “Let’s not fall into Putin’s trap”

“We must not fall into the trap of (Vladimir) Putin, who claims that the world is divided into the global ‘West’ – that is, the Group of Seven and their friends in the North – and everyone else,” Chancellor Olaf Soltz warned. the belief that sanctions against Russia make sense, as they have already significantly weakened the Russian economy.

“It is not true that the world has been divided over the war in Ukraine,” the chancellor said in an interview earlier today on the second channel of ZDF public television from Schlos Elmau in Upper Bavaria, where the G7 summit and referred to the fact that India, Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal and Argentina have been invited to the summit. “None of these countries sided with Russia at the UN General Assembly,” he said, adding: “We must show solidarity now, because the war attack has consequences all over the world.”

In the same context, the Chancellor said that together with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, measures that can be taken today to ensure the export of grain from Ukraine will be discussed today.

Answering a question about whether the Western sanctions against Russia make sense, when e.g. About 30% more Russian oil has been sold this year than last year, the chancellor said, adding that the sanctions had “contributed to a significant weakening of the Russian economy, which will continue.” In addition, according to Mr. Solz, Russia is now cut off from technological progress.

As chairman of the Group of Seven, Olaf Solz also said he was seeking to set up a “climate club” to facilitate transnational co-operation on environmental policies. “It concerns co-operation between countries that are willing to become carbon-neutral by the middle of the century,” he said. Germany wants to achieve this by 2045, he added, while acknowledging that the US and Canada are more cautious.