Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend the G7 summit this weekend in person, four people briefed on the preparations told the Financial Times.
Zelenskyy is expected to participate in meetings in Hiroshima, Japan, on Sunday, they said.
His unexpected attendance is aimed at bolstering western support for Ukraine as the war with Russia heads towards its 16th month. He will also seek to secure backing from non-G7 attendees such as India and Brazil, which have not joined western moves to punish Moscow.
Zelenskyy will travel on to Japan after attending a summit of the Arab League in Saudi Arabia, one of the four people said. The Ukrainian president landed in Jeddah on Friday afternoon, according to local television channels.
On Friday, in a joint statement about Ukraine, the G7 leaders agreed to support Kyiv for “as long as it takes” and to increase pressure on Moscow through additional sanctions measures, including efforts to curb its diamond exports.
But the statement did not include an earlier pledge to block Russian energy export routes that have been temporarily shut down by Moscow since the war began.
The watering down of that vow, from “preventing the reopening of avenues previously shut down by Russia’s weaponisation of energy” to promising that “Russia is no longer able to weaponise energy against us” came after the G7’s EU members demanded it be changed, three people briefed on the negotiations told the FT.
Zelenskyy’s attendance could complicate Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida’s efforts to ensure that the summit, which is being held in Asia for the first time in seven years, would not focus solely on the war in Ukraine.
Kishida wants the gathering to focus on security issues in the Indo-Pacific region and outreach to developing countries as well as the Ukraine conflict. The US also wants to have a strong focus on the Indo-Pacific and ensure that the countries can demonstrate as much unity as possible on their approach to China.
In March, Kishida made his first visit to Kyiv to formally invite Zelenskyy to attend the Hiroshima summit, marking a rare visit by a Japanese leader to a war zone. Kishida has repeatedly warned that “today’s Ukraine may be tomorrow’s east Asia”.
Zelenskyy is expected to redouble efforts to secure increased military support from western allies, including supplies of US-made F-16 fighter jets, which require the blessing of Washington.
He is also expected to discuss efforts to promote his 10-point peace plan for ending the war, which calls for a full Russian withdrawal and the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. A rival Chinese proposal does not refer to these as prerequisites for peace talks.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, did not confirm Zelenskyy’s attendance at the summit, but told state TV on Friday that “very important things will be decided there, so the physical presence of our president is absolutely important in order to defend our interests”.
The Japanese government had previously said that Zelenskyy was expected to participate in the event via video conference.
His international travel plans during the war have been kept secret until the final moment because of security concerns.
Zelenskyy has not visited Asia since the conflict began but he made previously unannounced visits to the UK, France, Italy and Germany this week.
Chris Johnstone, a Japan expert and former Pentagon official, said Zelenskyy’s appearance at the G7 would reinforce Kishida’s view that events in Europe and Asia were “deeply interconnected”.
Japan has taken a strong stance in support of Ukraine, including imposing sanctions on Russia, partly because it wants European support in the face of the rising challenge from China.
“It’s also a challenge to Europe, to be equally strong in pushing back [at] Chinese behaviour,” said Johnstone, who is now at the CSIS think-tank in Washington.
Canada on Friday joined the other G7 members in imposing a further round of sanctions on Russia for its suspected human rights abuses and to penalise individuals and entities that provide military technology to the Russian armed forces.
“Our message from Hiroshima is clear: G7 partners will continue to apply pressure on Russia to end its war of choice, and we will not be intimidated by nuclear rhetoric as we continue our pursuit of [a] more peaceful, stable, and secure future for everyone,” Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said in Hiroshima.
Additional reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv
