Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov walked out of a meeting with his G20 counterparts in Indonesia midday on Friday after a flood of Western statements condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Lavrov and his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were together for the first time since the start of the war in February, during this meeting bringing together the heads of diplomacy of the 20 largest economies world.
The summit, organized on the island of Bali, did not lead to any concrete decision, but gave rise to a confrontation between Moscow and the West.
Moscow said the West had “failed” in its plan to boycott Russia, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
But the participants “expressed their deep concerns about the humanitarian consequences of the war” in Ukraine, said Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, closing the meeting.
Indonesia, which has struggled to maintain a position of neutrality as the host country of the G20, had at its opening called for an end to the conflict, highlighting its serious consequences worldwide.
“It is our responsibility to end the war as soon as possible and to settle our differences at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield,” said Ms. Marsudi, in the presence of Mr. Lavrov.
The effect of the war “is being felt around the world, on food, energy and budgets”, she pointed out. “And as always, poor and developing countries are the most affected. »
The G20 did not unanimously condemn the Russian invasion, only “certain members” having done so, underlined Ms. Marsudi.
Westerners nevertheless felt that they had succeeded in broadening the front against Russia and clearly attributing responsibility to Moscow for the war and the global energy and food crises it provoked.
Isolated Russia
“What we have already heard today is a strong choir from around the world, not just from the United States for […] that aggression [russe] stop,” Antony Blinken told the press.
“Russia was so isolated that Lavrov left the conference at midday, after speaking,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said in an interview.
No state, even among the members of the BRICS, major developing countries closer to Moscow, has “defended the Russian attitude”, she specified.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, felt that Sergei Lavrov “did not listen to the others” during the meeting. “It was not the most constructive way to attend a G20 meeting,” he told AFP.
According to a Western official wishing to remain anonymous, Russia “was surprised at the number of G20 participants who made strong statements against Russian aggression”.
Another official suggested that Vladimir Putin would think twice before going to the heads of state summit scheduled for Bali in November, in the face of criticism from his foreign minister.
“Unjustifiable War”
Sergei Lavrov did not attend the afternoon session in which Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke online and Antony Blinken condemned Russia.
The latter had refused to meet his Russian counterpart separately, and denounced the responsibility of Russia in the world food and energy crises, asking in particular to authorize the exit of cereals from Ukraine.
Mr. Lavrov stressed for his part that Moscow would not run after Washington for talks.
The head of Russian diplomacy criticized Western countries for instrumentalizing the G20 arena rather than discussing major global issues.
“Our Western partners sought to avoid talking about global economic issues. As soon as they spoke, they almost immediately launched into a frenzied criticism of Russia on the situation in Ukraine, calling us aggressors,” Sergei Lavrov regretted.
From Moscow, Vladimir Putin warned him on Friday of the possible “catastrophic” consequences of Western sanctions for the global energy market.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, denounced the use of the energy crisis as a means of pressure by Russia.
“Russia hit the Europeans with a gas crisis”, which led to “catastrophic inflation” with fallout “painful for most people in Europe”, he stressed.
Antony Blinken had previously met with ministers from France, Germany and a British representative to discuss this “unjustifiable and unprovoked” war, the State Department said. They discussed “ways to address global food security concerns resulting from Russia’s deliberate targeting of Ukrainian agriculture.”
Tensions
The United States, supported by some of its Western allies, had called for Russia to be excluded from international forums.
But Indonesia, concerned about its neutrality, had invited the Russian Foreign Minister as well as his Ukrainian counterpart.
The latter, Dmytro Kuleba, asked participants to “remember the 344 families who lost their children listening to Russian lies”. “The minister of the country responsible for their deaths is before you today to share his thoughts on how Russia sees cooperation in our globalized world,” he continued.
The meeting was also overshadowed by the announcement of the attack which claimed the life of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an electoral rally in his country, and to which several ministers paid tribute.
This G20 was to be a prelude to the summit of heads of state to be held in Bali in November, initially devoted to the means of ensuring global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
But the invasion of Ukraine has changed priorities, with Westerners up against the Russian offensive, and soaring food and energy prices.
A sign of the tensions in this meeting, there will be no group photo at the end, contrary to tradition, said an Indonesian official.
Eastern Ukraine pounded
In Ukraine, Western critics did not prevent the Russian army on Friday, after four and a half months of war, from continuing to shell the Donetsk region with the intention of seizing the entire Donbass basin, its strategic objective since it withdrew from the vicinity of kyiv at the end of March.
Russian strikes in the Donetsk region left six dead and 21 injured in 24 hours, Ukrainian Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko announced.
The Ukrainian army claimed to have repulsed an attempted Russian advance near Sloviansk, but recognized an enemy advance south of Siversk.
In the Kharkiv region (northeast), the country’s second largest city, Russian bombardments left 4 civilians dead and 9 injured in 24 hours, Governor Oleg Sinegoubov said.
In the south of the country, kyiv reported explosions on Friday morning in the neighboring region of Mykolaiv, from where attempts to counterattack towards Kherson, a city occupied since the first days of the war, started.
Finally, in Moscow, an elected municipal official was sentenced to seven years in prison for having denounced the “aggression” against Ukraine, in the midst of a wave of repression to silence any criticism in the country.