“Any further active participation in Russia’s illegal war of aggression would be contrary to the will and aspirations of the Belarusian people. If the Belarusian authorities involve Belarus more directly in Russia’s war, the G7 will impose crushing additional costs on the regime,” the foreign ministers of the G7, the group of the seven richest countries in the world, stressed in a statement. communicated.

The G7 foreign ministers further pledged to “improve and closely coordinate efforts to meet Ukraine’s urgent military and defense equipment needs, in particular air defence.”

The G7 is made up of the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

Also the G7 Finance Ministers, meeting today for the last time before the end of the year, reaffirmed their commitment with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to provide economic assistance to Kyiv within the framework of the ” war of aggression”.

“We reaffirm that with our sanctions, we are not targeting food. We explicitly allow the free movement of agricultural products and do everything possible to minimize possible negative impacts and ripple effects on third countries,” the G7 added in the statement.

The most industrialized countries also underlined that together with the international community, they have shown “unity, creativity and strength” to meet “Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian, material and financial needs”.

“By 2022, we have mobilized $32,700 million (approximately €30,900 million) in budget support to help Ukraine reduce its financing gap for this year. This total amount has been disbursed or is in the process of being disbursed,” they pointed out.

The G7 also pointed out that until 2023 they have assured 32,000 million dollars (about 30,200 million euros) of support for Kyiv, an amount which includes 18,000 million dollars (about 17,000 million euros ) from the European Union, as well as a donation from the Member States to cover the costs.

It is an addition to Joe Biden’s latest executive-approved support package, which could be approved by the US Congress this week, as well as the “imminent” disbursement of $500 million (about $472 million). euros) of additional loans to World Bank guarantees. guaranteed by the UK.

The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 14 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million to European countries -, according to data. UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).

Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and shelter.

The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community as a whole, which responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing it on Russia. political and economic sanctions.

DMC // RBF

By Impala News / Lusa

Follow Impala on Instagram