The G7 has warned of a grain crisis in Ukraine, urging China not to help Russia

The Group of Seven leading economies warned Saturday that the war in Ukraine is creating a global food and energy crisis that threatens poor countries and that urgent action is needed to block grain stores that are preventing Russia from leaving Ukraine.

In a statement issued after a three-day meeting on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, the G-7 countries called on China not to help Russia by undermining international sanctions or justifying Moscow’s move in Ukraine.

“The war on Russian aggression has created the most severe food and energy crisis in recent history and is now a threat to the most vulnerable people in the world,” the group said.

“We are committed to accelerating an integrated multilateral response to global food security and to standing by our weakest partners in this regard.”

The G-7 called on Beijing to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence and not to “assist Russia in the war on aggression.” The group, made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, has called on China to “refrain from engaging in any other way to legitimize Russia’s war on information, confusion and misinformation”. The meeting at Weisenhaus, northeast of Hamburg, was billed as an opportunity for officials to discuss geopolitics, energy and food security, and the broader impact of the war on ongoing international efforts to combat climate change and epidemics.

In a series of concluding statements, the G-7 countries have addressed a wide range of global issues, from the situation in Afghanistan to the Middle East tensions.

On Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba appealed to friendly countries to increase pressure on Russia, including providing more military assistance to Kiev and confiscating its assets abroad to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Kuleba said his country was willing to talk to Russia about lifting the blockade on grain supplies to Ukraine and reaching a political agreement to end the war on its own, but had not yet received a “positive response” from Moscow.

German Chancellor Olaf Schulz said in an interview on Saturday that he had not seen any change in Putin’s position recently.

Schulz, who spoke at length with the Russian leader on Friday, told the German news portal T-Online that Putin had failed to achieve the military objectives he had set for the war and had lost more Russian troops than the Soviet Union. During his decades-long campaign in Afghanistan.

“Putin should gradually begin to realize that the only way out of this situation is an agreement with Ukraine,” Scholes was quoted as saying.

The G-7 meeting was attended by top diplomats from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. In addition to Kuleba, representatives from Moldova and Indonesia were also invited to participate in some of the talks.

Many of the foreign ministers were due to attend an informal meeting of NATO diplomats in Berlin on Saturday.