G7 pledges swift aid for Ukraine, seeks to calm Middle East

CAPRI, Italy: Group of Seven (G7) major powers pledged on Friday to bolster Ukraine’s air defences to counter increasingly deadly Russian attacks and told China to stop supporting Moscow’s military industry if it wanted good relations with the West.

Foreign ministers from the G7, comprising the United States, Italy, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain, wrapped up three days of talks on the island of Capri that were dominated by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

They acknowledged they had to do more to help Ukraine, which is struggling to hold off stronger Russian forces, and urged de-escalation in the Middle East, where the deep enmity between Israel and Iran risks triggering a wider regional conflict.

But the ministers also said the multitude of global crises was pulling leading democracies closer together. “We emerge from this meeting of the foreign ministers more united than ever,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Alarmed by growing Russian momentum on the battlefield, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba came to Capri in person to tell G7 allies that they needed to send more aid, saying wars in his home country and the Middle East were linked. Iran supplies Russia with the same type of armed drones that were used last week as part of its large-scale attack on Israel.

“The narrative that the West has to choose between supporting Israel or Ukraine is wrong because these are two theatres of the same war,” Kuleba told reporters.

The G7 said in a statement it would increase security assistance for Kyiv, specifically bolstering “Ukraine’s air defence capabilities to save lives and protect critical infrastructure”.