US refuses to call Russia ‘aggressor’ in G7 document

BERLIN: The United States is opposing calling Russia the aggressor in the war with Ukraine in a G7 statement being drafted to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, four senior officials from countries involved said Thursday. The American objections to the statement come after President Donald Trump earlier this week blamed Ukraine for starting the war, which in fact began with Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
One official from a G7 country said that current chair Canada had circulated the first draft of the statement to the other six member countries. That version, the official said, used language that retained the pro-Ukraine tone the group of allies adopted after the full-scale invasion of the country in Feb 2022. The US side went through that first draft this week and removed all references that could be interpreted as being pro-Ukraine, the official said. The result, the official added, was a neutral draft statement that made no references to Russia as the aggressor in the conflict, nor to Ukraine as the victim of the invasion.
Diplomats are continuing to work on the language in the draft, which currently describes “a devastating war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” but does not use the words “Russian aggression” or “aggressors”, which have been in G7 statements since 2022, senior German and European officials said. Another senior official from a G7 nation added that the drafting and negotiating over the text could continue until Monday, when the text is set to be published.
Similarly, it is not yet settled whether the G7 leaders who will meet virtually Monday will invite President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to participate, as he did last year, the official said.
The American objections follow a bitter exchange of insults between Zelensky and Trump. The US president has vowed to try to end the war rapidly and has authorised envoys to hold talks with Russia without the involvement of Ukraine or European nations.
The Americans also wanted to cut passages that described the invasion as a breach of sovereignty, one official said. For now, the current draft includes a statement that says strong security guarantees and Ukraine’s integration into the EU “will be critical to secure a lasting peace that prevents future aggression.” Negotiations are continuing, so the final language is still to be determined. The last time Canada was the G7 chair, during Trump’s first term in 2018, the president walked out of a summit meeting in Quebec and withdrew his support for the final joint communique, angry about its language on trade.