PM Call With G7 And European Leaders And President Zelenskyy: 8 May 2022

The Prime Minister addressed G7 and European leaders, alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this afternoon, telling them the world must go further and faster to support Ukraine.

The Prime Minister said there was a savage irony that the leaders had gathered to discuss Putin’s barbaric invasion on a day when they should be remembering the sacrifice of Russian soldiers defeating fascism in the Second World War.

He agreed with G7 leaders that the world must intensify economic pressure on Putin in any way possible, and said the west must not allow the war to turn into a stalemate that only magnified suffering.

Ukraine needed to receive military equipment that allowed them to not just hold ground in Ukraine, but recapture it, the Prime Minister told the leaders.

The devastating ripples of the Ukrainian war was impacting food supplies across the world, and the Prime Minister agreed with his counterparts that more needed to be done to support Ukraine’s agricultural exports and wider global food security.

The Prime Minister added that G7 partners needed to intensify their diplomatic lobbying of counterparts failing to apply pressure on President Putin’s war machine, especially as it was clear grossly unjustifiable human rights abuses and war crimes were being committed.

He added that he looked forward to seeing G7 leaders at the summit in Germany next month.