US against labelling Russia the aggressor in G7 Ukraine war statement

Kyiv: Washington has objected to labelling Russia the aggressor in the Ukraine war in a planned statement by the Group of Seven and is refusing to co-sponsor a draft United Nations resolution – both to mark three years since Moscow’s invasion – in a potential stark shift by Kyiv’s most powerful Western ally.

The US rebuff to language that has been regularly used by the UN and G7 since February 2022, revealed by several diplomatic sources, comes amid a widening rift between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump.

Adding to tensions, a scheduled news conference between Zelensky and Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, was cancelled at Washington’s request.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and US special envoy Keith Kellogg during their meeting in Kyiv.Credit: AP

Trump is trying to rapidly end the war in Ukraine and sent a team to hold talks with Russia this week in Saudi Arabia without the involvement of Kyiv.

Ukraine’s allies have used the previous two February 24 anniversaries of the war to reiterate their condemnation of Russia’s invasion, but this year it is unclear how the US will approach it.

At the UN, countries can decide to co-sponsor a resolution up until a vote. The 193-member General Assembly was due to vote on the draft resolution, which backs Ukraine’s territorial integrity and again demands Russia withdraw its troops, on Monday, diplomats said. General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry political weight, reflecting a global view on the war.

“In previous years, the United States has consistently co-sponsored such resolutions in support of a just peace in Ukraine,” one of three diplomatic sources, who like the others requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive UN matter, said on Thursday.

The source told Reuters that the resolution was being sponsored by more than 50 countries, declining to identify them.

A second diplomatic source who also requested anonymity said: “For now, the situation is they [the US] won’t sign it.” Efforts were ongoing to seek support from other countries instead, the source added.

A spokesperson for the US diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment.

The G7 – which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US – was planning to hold a call on Monday, three sources told Reuters, but so far Washington was objecting to language on “Russian aggression”, two other sources told Reuters.

A statement issued by G7 foreign ministers last week contained no mention of Russian aggression but did refer to “Russia’s devastating war in Ukraine”.

The row is a major political crisis for Ukraine, which has used tens of billions of dollars of US military aid agreed under the Biden administration to weather Russia’s invasion and also benefited from diplomatic support.

Trump’s envoy, Kellogg, met Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday, but there was no immediate word on whether their talks had helped smooth over the rift between the once firm allies.

A news conference scheduled after the meeting, which was originally supposed to include comments to the media by Zelensky and Kellogg about Trump’s efforts to end the war, was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity where the two posed for journalists.

They did not deliver statements or field questions as expected. The change was requested by the US side, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhii Nikiforov said.

The US delegation made no immediate comment. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about why the news conference was called off.

Writing on his Telegram channel, Zelensky said the meeting with Kellogg was a “good conversation, lots of details”. He said they discussed security guarantees for Ukraine and the return of Ukrainian prisoners from Russian custody.

US President Donald Trump is trying to rapidly end the war in Ukraine.Credit: AP

“We can and must make peace reliable and lasting so that Russia can never return with war again,” he wrote. “Ukraine is ready for a strong, truly beneficial agreement with the president of the United States on investments and security.”

Zelensky had earlier struck a conciliatory tone after accusing Trump of repeating Russian disinformation in response to the US president’s accusation that Ukraine had started the three-year-old war with Russia. Trump went on to refer to Zelensky as a “dictator” who should act fast or lose his country.

Trump is seeking to re-establish ties with Russia and also invest in Ukraine’s mineral resources critical to the energy transition. Ukraine rejected an initial US plan as it did not include security guarantees.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration was considering presenting a simplified minerals deal to Zelensky, though the Ukrainian president made no mention of the revised agreement in his social media remarks.

European leaders have responded to Trump’s stance on Ukraine by pledging to step up spending on defence, and some are considering a US-backed European peacekeeping force for the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, said on Thursday he would tell Trump not to be “weak” on Putin.

“How can you be credible with China if you’re weak with Putin?” Macron said, during a question-and-answer session on social media.

A possible meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “will largely depend on whether we can make any progress on ending the war in Ukraine”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

“You don’t generally have these meetings until you know some outcome or some progress has been made,” Rubio told journalist Catherine Herridge in an interview broadcast on X.

Russia has seized some 20 per cent of Ukraine and is slowly but steadily gaining territory in the east. Moscow said its “special military operation” responded to an existential threat posed by Kyiv’s pursuit of membership of the NATO military alliance. Ukraine and the West call Russia’s action an imperialist land grab.

Reuters, AP

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