Volodymyr Zelenskyy clashes with Vladimir Putin enablers at G7 summit

Featured Sponsor

Store	Link	Sample Product
UK Artful Impressions	Premiere Etsy Store

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is taking his side for support beyond his Western allies with a stunning appearance at the G7 summit this weekend, clashing with the leaders of India and Brazil after opting out of backing sanctions against Russia .

The Ukrainian president’s first visit to Asia since the start of the war has brought him face to face with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he is also due to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – the leaders of two crucial developing countries who have sought to maintain close ties with Moscow despite its large invasion of ukraine.

The two men also obscured those responsible for the conflict, in which kyiv is preparing a counter-offensive.

After his equally unexpected decision to attend an Arab League meeting in Saudi Arabia on Friday on the way to Hiroshima, Zelenskyy’s appearance at the G7 will test his efforts to expand his coalition of support beyond NATO states and US allies.

Brendan Boyle, a Democratic congressman and co-chairman of the EU caucus in the House of Representatives, said Zelenskyy’s presence was a “unique opportunity” for him to leverage peer pressure on Modi and Lula by presence of G7 leaders.

“It’s one thing for Modi or Lula to ignore Zelenskyy at home,” Boyle said. “But it’s quite different trying to ignore him when you also have the President of the United States standing right next to him.”

Zelenskyy’s surprise decision to travel to Saudi Arabia and then Japan was kept secret for security reasons until Friday, but was accepted by all attendees in the weeks leading up to the event, officials said. He arrived in Japan on Saturday.

India and Brazil, two of the world’s most powerful developing countries, have not supported sanctions against Russia and have maintained close political and trade ties with Moscow, which is a Brics partner alongside South Africa and China.

Both countries have stopped taking similar action to China’s political support for Moscow or South Africa’s alleged role in arms supply in Russia.

But movements like India’s role in processing Russian crude and diamonds, and Brazil’s refusal to sell ammunition to Germany on the grounds that it might help Ukraine, angered Western partners.

New Delhi abstained in a vote at the UN in February demanding that Russia end its invasion, and its increased thirst for Russian oil over the past year has helped push Moscow’s crude exports to a peak after last month’s invasion.

Brazil supported the February UN resolution, but Lula was accused of stimulating Russian propaganda claiming that kyiv and Moscow are responsible for the conflict and that Ukraine “does not want to stop” the war.

The opportunity for Zelenskyy to speak directly with Modi, Lula and other guests from developing countries was ‘the best way to explain why he is coming, because he has already met all the G7 leaders’, a senior diplomat says of the G7. “This is part of our joint outreach [to developing countries] and is a major milestone for Zelenskyy.

“The Japanese would not just go ahead without consulting and preparing thoroughly,” the senior diplomat added.

François Heisbourg, adviser to the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research think tank, said: “The basic logic is the pursuit of what investors would call the roadshow. If you can look Lula and Modi in the eye, that’s a major bonus.

“He was in the different [western] capitals, and now he is going to see those he has not yet met. It shapes the political battlefield,” Heisbourg added.

Zelenskyy is expected to take part in two separate sessions on Sunday – one with G7 members only and the second with Modi, Lula and other guests including Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Russia, which was a member of the G8 before being expelled for having annexed Crimea, was not invited to the Hiroshima summit.

For host country Japan, the gathering was seen as a once-in-seven-year opportunity to draw the attention of its Western allies to the threats posed by China’s military and economic ambitions.

Paul Haenle, a former senior White House official in China, said Beijing would not welcome a G7 decision to use Zelenskyy’s participation to link security concerns in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.

“The biggest concern [for China] would be if the G7 uses Zelenskyy’s presence to link Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the risk of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan,” said Haenle, now director of Carnegie China, a group reflection.

Zelenskyy’s visit risks focusing the G7 agenda on Ukraine, but officials in Tokyo also say it offers a rare opportunity to bring together important participants from the Indo-Pacific – including Australia, Korea South, Indonesia, Vietnam and India – along with Ukraine.

“There is hope that this will deepen understanding of Ukraine’s situation in the Global South,” a Japanese government official said.

Hideaki Shinoda, a professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, said Zelenskyy’s presence at an event attended by Indo-Pacific leaders could reinforce Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s message that security in Europe and in the Indo-Pacific were “inseparable”.

Richard McGregor, an Asia expert at the Lowy Institute think tank, said Zelenskyy’s appearance would serve as a “symbol of unity” against Russia, but added that Modi and Lula’s presence would be “an uncomfortable reminder” that there were limits to unity over Ukraine.

He noted that Tokyo had been reluctant to criticize Russia in the past, and added, “The most welcome part of this limited show of unity is the fact that he comes at Japan’s invitation.”