Ukraine's Zelenskyy to join G7 leaders video summit Wednesday: Japan

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend a G7 video summit later Wednesday, chair Japan announced, hours after backing out of a virtual meeting with US lawmakers.

The G7 TV conference will be hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. In addition to the G7 leaders, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy will attend the first half of the summit, according to government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno.

He added that Kishida and the other leaders from the grouping of advanced economies including the United States will “discuss important issues for the international community such as the Ukraine situation, the Middle East situation and AI (artificial intelligence)”.

Zelenskyy abruptly postponed a scheduled videolink session with US lawmakers on Tuesday, where he was to have asked for further funds.

He was expected to persuade them to approve a procedural vote on an emergency aid package worth more than $60 billion for Kyiv on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Zelenskyy was unable to attend due to a “last-minute” snag, but he went on with the briefing anyway, only for the proceedings to devolve into a verbal brawl.

The US Congress is more divided over backing for Ukraine than it has been at any time during the nearly two-year conflict, with the country fast exhausting the military aid provided by the United States so far.

Senate Republicans are making their support for additional Ukraine funding contingent on President Joe Biden’s Democrats accepting reforms to the asylum system and tightened border security — measures the Democrats have already rejected.

Continued support for Ukraine’s war effort and its possible accession to the European Union are also set to be major topics at a summit next week of the bloc’s leaders.