The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on the eve of the great parade to celebrate the victory over Nazism, he addressed the message of good wishes to all the countries of the former Soviet bloc, including Ukraine, and to the two separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk: "As in 1945, the victory will be ours".
"Today our military, like their ancestors, are fighting side by side for the liberation of their homeland from Nazi filth, with the certainty that, as in 1945, victory will be ours.“, Putin emphasized. "Today the common duty is to prevent the rebirth of Nazism, which caused so much suffering to the peoples of different countries. I hope that the new generations are worthy of the memory of their fathers and grandfathers ”.
In his message, Putin then addressed the civilians on the home front who crushed Nazism at the cost of countless sacrifices: "Unfortunately, today, Nazism raises its head again, our sacred duty is to prevent the ideological heirs of those who were defeated seventy-seven years ago from taking their revenge ”.
The G7 aligns with Biden
The final statement reads: "The G7 reassures President Zelensky of our ability to make further commitments to help Ukraine secure a future of freedom and democracy". In essence, all the weapons that Kiev asks for will be provided "So that it can defend itself today and build a deterrence mechanism for other aggressions".
The G7 countries have also pledged to increase short-term financial support.
Zelensky, invited to the remote meeting, said that "Our ultimate goal is to force the Russian forces to withdraw completely from our entire territory". No mention has been made of the cession of Crimea.
At the end of the work, the decisions taken from the final press release were vehement against Putin's policy: "His actions are shaming Russia and the historical sacrifices of his people ". The G7 countries, the note reads, support without hesitation the investigation into war crimes conducted by the Prosecutor of the International Court of Justice.
The meeting between the great of the Earth, before today's parade on Red Square in Moscow, was designed to anticipate every initiative and threat of Putin that he will probably make in his speech before the nation, scheduled for 10.30 Italian time. The G7 has already declared that it will support by all means the Ukrainians' counter-offensive on the ground to free the Black Sea outlet of Kiev, now entirely controlled by the Russian fleet. The aim is to allow cargo ships carrying grain and other foodstuffs to be routed outwards (with a lot of focus on the port of Odessa). As for intelligence information drawn from the press (NYT affair), the G7 has decided to strengthen the filtering of such information often still classified as "confidential".
POWER. The Russian oil embargo will probably be kicked off next Wednesday. Coreper has in fact already been called up for 1 May. The final document of the G11 reads: "We will work together and with our partners to ensure stable and sustainable global energy supplies and affordable prices for consumers ”. The White House has also hinted that it will help those who depend on Russian oil more.
SANCTIONS. New sanctions need to be enacted, but everyone is waiting for Putin's speech today first. In the event of a declared escalation of the conflict, the content of the sanctions will have to be adjusted. In this phase it will be necessary to make a square between the Western countries and communicate a shared strategy in the universal interest of peace. This latter objective, however, is difficult to pursue because the interests and needs of the individual euro area countries with respect to the transatlantic ones do not often converge.