Zelensky to address emergency G-7 meeting after Russian strikes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the Group of Seven (G-7) nations in an emergency meeting following a spate of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Zelensky said the speech was scheduled when he discussed an urgent G-7 meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“We also discussed the issue of increasing pressure on [the Russian Federation] & aid in restoring damaged infrastructure,” the Ukrainian president tweeted.

Scholz’s office confirmed to CNN the emergency meeting will take place virtually on Tuesday.

The G-7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The group’s members have slapped crippling sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February.

Russia had been part of the group, then known as the G-8, before it annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend and on Monday ordered mass strikes targeting civilian infrastructure in around a dozen Ukrainian cities, including the capital of Kyiv where at least five people died.

The strikes were in apparent retaliation for an explosion on the Kerch bridge, which links Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. Putin has blamed the “terrorist” attacks on Ukraine and has vowed a “harsh” response.

World leaders have condemned the Russian strikes, noting the targeting of civilians is a war crime.