Russia says G20 acted in the interest of conflict resolution – Ukraine calls compromise wording ‘nothing to be proud of’
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is Christine Kearney and here’s a rundown on the latest.
Russia has praised a G20 summit declaration that stopped short of directly criticising Moscow for the war in Ukraine and said the bloc’s leaders had acted in the interest of conflict resolution as deliberations headed into a second day on Sunday.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry responded to the joint declaration by G20 leaders, describing the sections relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “nothing to be proud of”. Foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko called out the declaration for not outright naming Russia. “It is clear that the participation of the Ukrainian side would have allowed the participants to better understand the situation.”
An adviser to the head of the office of Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned about the consequences of lifting sanctions against Russia, which pushed for a grain deal in the joint G20 declaration that would lift the international Swiftbank payments ban on some Russian banks. “Even the slightest lifting of sanctions on Russia or any discussions suggesting such an option have consequences,” Mykhailo Podolyak said.
G20 leaders adopted the consensus declaration on issues facing the bloc after some disagreement over the wording on the war in Ukraine. Western countries had pushed for strong condemnation of Russia while Russia blocked a compromise that was “acceptable otherwise for everyone else”, an EU diplomat told Reuters.
The wording on a portion of the declaration on Ukraine noted the “different views and assessments” on Russia’s war, but underscored that all states must act in a manner “consistent with the purposes and principles of the UN charter in its entirety”. It called for the “timely and effective” implementation to ensure “immediate and unimpeded” deliveries of grain, food stuff and fertilisers from Ukraine and Russia.
Ukraine’s top diplomat, Dmytro Kuleba, also condemned the lack of progress on the creation of a tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders and on the transfer of frozen assets. The foreign minister said the G7 group “stands firmly” in favour of a hybrid tribunal based on Ukrainian legislation. This would not allow for the immunity of Vladimir Putin and other leading Russian figures to be stripped – an unacceptable option for Kyiv.
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