Ukraine’s Zelenskyy will attend G7 Summit in Japan

Sarah Gambles
·2 min read
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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, greet each other during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 21, 2023. Zelenskyy will join leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies in Hiroshima, Japan, making his furthest trip from of his war-torn country as leaders are set to unveil new sanctions on Russia for its invasion.

This week, the leaders of the most powerful democratic governments in the world are meeting in person. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join the Group of Seven summit on Sunday, but on Friday before his arrival, part of what the other leaders had on the agenda was addressing the war in Ukraine.

They “vowed Friday to tighten punishments for Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine,” the Associated Press reported.

What will world leaders discuss at the G7 Summit?

“Our support for Ukraine will not waver,” the G7 leaders said in a statement, per The AP News. They also vowed “to stand together against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy’s attendance at the G7 Summit will follow an in-person visit to Saudi Arabia in “his latest stop on a flurry of trips outside of Ukraine to shore up support ahead of a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive,” The New York Times reported.

What did Zelenskyy say on his trip to Saudi Arabia?

During his unannounced trip to Saudi Abrabia for the Arab League Summit, he pushed for the return of political prisoners from Crimea and other Russian-occupied regions, according to BBC.

“Unfortunately, there are some in the world and here among you who turn a blind eye to those (prisoner of war) cages and illegal annexations and I’m here so that everyone can take an honest look, no matter how hard the Russians try to influence, there must still be independence,” Zelenksyy said during the summit, per BBC.

What other leaders will be at the G7 Summit in Japan?

In Japan, Zelenksyy will appear alongside President Joe Biden, along with top leaders from Japan, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Italy. They also are likely to discuss how to enforce Russian sanctions and how to get peace talks on the table between Russia and Ukraine, per the Times.

“We were sure that our president would be where Ukraine needed him, in any part of the world, to solve the issue of stability of our country,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on national television, per AP. “There will be very important matters decided there, so physical presence is a crucial thing to defend our interests.”