Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major nations instructed China to cease assisting Moscow’s military sector if it wished to have positive relations with the West and promised to boost Ukraine’s air defenses to fend off increasingly lethal Russian strikes on Friday.
Three days of meetings on the island of Capri, dominated by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, came to an end with the foreign ministers of the G7 countries: the United States, Italy, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Britain.
The extreme animosity between Israel and Iran raises the possibility of a broader regional confrontation; therefore they called for de-escalation in the Middle East and admitted that more needed to be done to support Ukraine, which is fighting to repel greater Russian forces.
But the ministers also said the multitude of global crises was pulling leading democracies closer together.
“We emerge from this meeting of the foreign ministers more united than ever,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Alarmed by growing Russian momentum on the battlefield, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba came to Capri in person to tell G7 allies that they needed to send more aid, saying wars in his home country and the Middle East were linked.
Iran supplies Russia with the same type of armed drones that were used last week as part of its large-scale attack on Israel.
“The narrative that the West has to choose between supporting Israel or Ukraine is wrong because these are two theatres of the same war,” Kuleba told reporters.
The G7 said in a statement it would increase security assistance for Kyiv, specifically bolstering “Ukraine’s air defence capabilities to save lives and protect critical infrastructure”.
Two years after launching its invasion, Russia has been targeting key Ukrainian energy infrastructure, killing hundreds of civilians in its strikes. Russia says the energy system is a legitimate target and denies targeting civilians.
