G-20 urges end to Ukraine war

The United States and its Western allies are leading a push to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the two-day Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

A draft declaration, which has yet to be adopted by the group of leaders representing the world’s major economies, said most members condemn the nearly nine-month-long war.

“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy,” the draft declaration said, according to Reuters.

However, the declaration also reportedly noted that there are “other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions,” appearing to acknowledge the members that are likely to push back on such a declaration, including Russia, China and India.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Western countries of trying to “politicize” the declaration.

“Our Western colleagues tried in every way to make that declaration politicised and tried to push through language that implied condemning the actions of the Russian Federation on behalf of the entire G20, which includes us,” Lavrov said on Tuesday, according to Reuters, adding, “But let’s do this in a fair way and let’s make it clear that, on this topic, we have differences.”

China and India have both avoided condemning Moscow over the war, abstaining from a similar declaration from the United Nations in March.

Tuesday’s summit was the first time the Group of 20 has met since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February.