Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday addressed the Group of 7 and asked for natural gas and more advanced weaponry, including fighter jets, tanks, and long-range missiles.
After the meeting, G7 leaders released a joint statement reaffirming they will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” So far, the US has held off giving Ukraine the longer-range weapons Zelensky seeks, but The Times reported Friday that the US is more likely to provide such arms as it now tacitly supports Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russian territory, which risks a major escalation of the war.
The G7 meeting on Monday was more focused on financial aid for Ukraine rather than military assistance. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the G7 was focused on both short-term and long-term needs, including the country’s post-war reconstruction, which he likened to US aid for Western Europe after World War II, known as the Marshall Plan.
“The reconstruction of Ukraine will be a human task that is perhaps comparable to the Marshall Plan,” Scholz said. The G7 leaders said they will instruct their finance ministers to hold a meeting soon to coordinate with the IMF on providing Ukraine with aid to cover its 2023 budget, which has a deficit of about $38 billion that Kyiv expects its Western backers to cover.
The G7 meeting came as millions of Ukrainians are without power as Russia has been launching large-scale attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure. President Biden spoke with Zelensky by phone on Sunday and told him that the US is prioritizing supporting Ukraine with air defense systems.
“”Zelensky Asks G7 For Natural Gas…””
wow ukraine are right next door to the 2nd largest exporter of nat gas on the planet.
maybe uncle zelensky sam should have kept his missiles in his pants when he had the chance to, and russia would be delivering nat gas instead of despair.
It was that issue that led to the overthrow of the Ukraine government in 2014. Russia had a better deal. So, the good ole U.S. of A., bastion of unfettered capitalism, funds an overthrow to stop it.
That was not the reason. Not true.
Conduct an unbiased search and you’ll see the real reason and I’ll give you a hint;
Ukraine was going to have a prolific economic trade agreement with the EU that included exporting Ukraine’s Natural Gas from their Eastern/Donbas region large deposits. Russia didn’t like this as it would take away their EU gas market customer and thus reduce their chances to establish a Natural Gas and Oil Monopoly. Putin gave billions to Yanukovych in exchange for walking away from such agreement. This agreement was going to turn Ukraine into a prosper country hence the Ukrainian revolt that let the coup. When the new Ukraine president was elected, Putin knew the Sevastopol Naval base lease was not going to be renewed/extended so he took Crimea.
The West never ever ever uses financial motivations to sway leaders/nations.
There is an inbuilt financial incentive to join NATO, joining NATO was (and staying in is) the desire of the overwhelming majority of the electorates in all (possibly only nearly all) member states – so adding financial motivations to the leaders would not have been necessary. It may still have happened, but it was not required.
This was before reality sunk into the memory hole. And boy did he predict what was to come:
Feb 20, 2014
Ukraine Violence Escalates, Leaked Tape Suggests U.S. Was Plotting Coup
Could NATO first fix the mess they made in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc. before they try a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine.
How come we don’t give some of that stuff to Yemen? What a pig, Zelensky is, to ask/demand and ask/demand and ask/demand. All with no accountability for what the Dictator gets.