G20 summit cranks up diplomatic pressure on Vladimir Putin over Ukraine war

G20 leaders are expected to deplore the mounting economic costs of Russia’s war on Ukraine, says a draft communique.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky makes a surprise visit to Kherson. Picture: Getty Images

G20 leaders are expected to deplore the mounting economic costs of Russia’s war on Ukraine, according to a draft communique that points to Moscow’s growing diplomatic isolation over its invasion.

A draft of the final leaders’ communique circulating in Bali on Tuesday, agreed to by G20 diplomats after days of tense negotiations, suggests a possible breakthrough among leaders of the world’s largest economies as Indonesian President Joko Widodo warned that a new cold war was looming if they could not agree on how to end the Ukraine conflict.

Mr Widodo told leaders on Tuesday that collaboration was “badly needed to save the world” and the talks “cannot fail”.

“We should not divide the world into parts.

“We must not allow the world to fall into another cold war,” he said.

The G20 host earlier urged the US, EU and G7 nations to show “flexibility in deliberation of the (joint) declaration”.

Bitter divisions over how to address the Ukraine conflict – the cause of so many disruptions in global food and energy markets – has prevented G20 member states from agreeing on a single joint communique this year, with Russia and China opposing any addition to the communique that condemns its Ukraine invasion.

A draft of the final document seen by The Australian says; “Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine … which was causing immense human suffering” and exacerbating global economic upheaval by disrupting supply chains and heightening energy and food ­insecurity.

The document acknowledges “other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions” within the G20, but warns “today’s era must not be of war” and calls threats to use nuclear weapons “inadmissible”.

It also calls for the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative deal with Russia allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain, which expires on Friday.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the summit by video link on Tuesday where he pointedly urged G19 countries “to use all their power” to force Russia to abandon its nuclear threats, withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory and pay reparations for the thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage caused by its invasion.

He said Russia could not be trusted to adhere to any peace agreement, which it would likely “violate immediately after signing”, and Ukraine should not be ­offered peace deals that would compromise its “conscience, sovereignty, territory and independence”.

“I want this aggressive Russian war to end justly and on the basis of the UN charter and international law,” the Ukrainian leader said.

“If there are no concrete actions to restore peace, it means Russia simply wants to deceive all of you again, deceive the world and freeze the war just when its ­defeats have become particularly notable.”

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, standing in for President Vladimir Putin at the summit, is understood to have stayed in the room for Mr Zelensky’s speech while Western leaders remained as Mr Lavrov spoke.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and economic blowback – including rising food and energy insecurity – has dominated discussions at the two-day summit as it has every high-level meeting of the G20 this year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr Putin’s most important global ally, also spoke of the war’s effect on food and energy security on Tuesday, saying the G20 “must resolutely oppose the attempt to politicise food and energy issues or use them as tools and weapons”.

In some of his strongest language on the war’s fallout, Mr Xi said the crisis in food and energy markets was caused by “interrupted supply chains” and “unilateral sanctions must be removed”.

Western countries maintain that Russia’s war has cut off Ukraine’s food exports, while Moscow has blamed Western sanctions for restricting its own shipments.

US and Russian spy chiefs met in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday to discuss how to prevent the outbreak of nuclear war over Ukraine while the issue was also raised in Monday’s meeting between Joe Biden and Mr Xi.

“We discussed Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and re­affirmed our shared belief in the threat where the use of nuclear weapons is totally unacceptable,” the US President told reporters in a late-night press conference after the 3½-hour meeting.