The seven powers promise more sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian economies, but without achieving them
The second day of the G7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria, was marked by the appearance via videoconference of Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president again asked for military help from the seven economic powers in his battle against the Russian invasion. The leaders of USA, UK, Canada, Japan, France, Italy and Germany They responded with a joint statement in which they commit to supporting the Ukrainian army “as long as necessary & rdquor ;. They also commit to invest nearly 30 billion euros to guarantee basic services for the Ukrainian population.
Zelensky’s intervention was behind closed doors and the organization of the summit barely released thirty seconds of images without sound of the meeting with the leaders of the seven powers. The Ukrainian president’s request comes at a time when Russia is consolidating its military advances in the east of the country and when in kyiv the fear that in the West a certain fatigue begins to set in regarding a war that is likely to become chronic and that, moreover, already has a clear economic impact on Western countries. Inflation and a seemingly inevitable recession are just some of those consequences.
additional measures
The closed rejection of the Russian invasion was followed by the commitment of all the G7 countries to apply new sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian economies. The members of the block consider that the regime of Alexander Lukashenko a fundamental support for the Kremlin its “war of aggression & rdquor ;. The joint statement is, however, rather vague and does not explain what the concrete measures could be – and additional to the sanctions already in force – against Moscow and Minsk.
“We will balance and expand targeted sanctions to further restrict Russia’s access to key industrial inputs, services and technologies produced by our economies, in particular those that support Russia’s defense industrial base and technology sector,” the joint statement said. which also mentions the possible blockade of Russian gold in Western markets and the reduction of the Kremlin’s income from the sale of oil. Another express objective of the G7 is to eliminate as soon as possible the energy dependency generated by Russian fossil exports and the transition towards a model of climate neutrality.
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The omnipresence of the war in Ukraine and its consequences left the two other highlights of the second day of the summit in the background: climate change and food security, two issues that require urgent responses, according to voices critical of the summit organized by Germany.