Ukraine war: G20 leaders denounce Russia as Kremlin protests politicization of meeting
By George Aluo, with agency reports
G20 leaders have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a communique issued after their meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
The condemnation came despite the presence of Russia at the summit and that of their strong allies China and India.
Russia has however protested the condemnation decrying what it called the ‘politicization’ of the meeting.
According to a report on Aljazeera the final communique, approved on Wednesday after a two-day summit in Indonesia, said the majority of members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine, but noted there were other views.
The statement acknowledged “there were other views and different assessments” and said the G-20 is “not the forum to resolve security issues”.
International law must be upheld, the communique said, also condemning the threat of the use of nuclear weapons. It welcomed the Black Sea grain initiative as the war has prevented much-needed grain heading to world markets.
“Many members… expressed concern about the damage caused by the conflict on critical health infrastructure, as well as casualties in health care workers, which have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable, women and children,” said the declaration.
The war on Ukraine was hurting the global economy, it added. The communique also said members’ central banks would continue to calibrate the pace of monetary policy tightening.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who headed the Russian delegation to the summit in the absence of President Vladimir Putin, earlier in the week condemned “politicisation” of the G20 meeting.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, also in Bali for the summit, warned it was “absolutely essential to avoid escalating the war in Ukraine”.
His comments came after an explosion in Poland, a NATO member, which immediately sparked concerns the alliance might be drawn directly into Russia’s nearly nine-month war against Western-backed Ukraine.
Confusion surrounded the incident as to which side fired a missile into Poland that killed two people.
The blast was an attempt to spark a direct clash between Russia and NATO, the head of the permanent mission of Russia to the United Nations said on Wednesday.
“There is an attempt to provoke a direct military clash between NATO and Russia, with all the consequences for the world,” Dmitry Polyansky said on his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told G20 leaders on Wednesday there was a “terrorist state” among them.
Speaking by video link, Zelenskyy called the strike on Poland “a true statement brought by Russia for the G20 summit”.
Poland has said there is no clear evidence on who launched the missile. The Associated Press quoted unnamed US officials as saying the missile may have been fired by Ukraine forces in an attempt to shoot down a Russian missile.
