This firing of a “Russian-made” projectile, according to Warsaw, reinforces fears of an escalation of the conflict against which the leaders of the 20 major world economies have been constantly warning against – without Vladimir Putin – since Tuesday in Bali.
From the Indonesian tropical island, American, French and British officials in particular consulted their Polish and Ukrainian counterparts in the early morning in a series of telephone calls.
After an emergency meeting lasting nearly an hour, the Heads of State or Government of the G7 (United States, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Japan) and NATO brought their “full support” for Poland in a press release. Without accusing any officials immediately, they decided to “stay in close contact to determine next steps based on the investigation”.
“I’m going to make sure we can figure out what exactly happened,” Joe Biden said. “Then we will collectively determine the measures to be taken.”.
While Poland, a member of NATO, mentioned a “Russian-made” missile and kyiv blamed Moscow, the American president indicated that it was “improbable” that the device was fired “from Russia”.
The missile fell on the village of Przewodow, in southeastern Poland, not far from Ukraine which was targeted on Tuesday by intense Russian bombardments on infrastructure, but also not far from Belarusian territory used by the Russian army since the beginning of the invasion on February 24.
– Fears of famine –
Joe Biden clarified that he had discussed with his allies Tuesday’s Russian strikes in Ukraine, which he called “totally unconscionable”. “As the world gathers at the G20 to call for de-escalation, Russia continues to choose escalation,” he lamented.
Russia finds itself once again accused of aggravating a murderous conflict with heavy economic consequences, with a surge in the prices of energy and food products which are particularly difficult to bear for the countries of the South.
Many of the latter refuse to condemn Moscow and prefer to call on the two parties to negotiate. But pressure has increased on Russian power since the start of the G20, where Westerners want to rally southern countries like China and India.
Despite their divisions, the 20 members of this club originally created to manage economic issues had agreed on a draft statement sparing the different positions. The text consulted by AFP recognizes the negative repercussions of the “war in Ukraine”, condemned by “most” of them.
– Lavrov est party –
The Russian president, whose army has accumulated defeats and is retreating in southern Ukraine, is the main absentee from the meeting. He was represented by his head of diplomacy Sergei Lavrov but the latter left Bali on Tuesday evening, and was therefore not there to respond directly to criticism on Wednesday.
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to speak again on Wednesday before the G20 after having already assured the “G19”, excluding Russia in his remarks, that it was “time for Russia’s destructive war to end. stopped”.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Indonesia Vassyl Garmyanin considered “very symbolic and significant that on the first day of the summit we are witnessing the worst wave of missile launches (against Ukraine), it is a clear signal to the G20 and the ‘Indonesia on how Russia is handling peace efforts’.
“Then two missiles fell in Poland, this shows Russia’s intentions,” he told AFP.
At the center of attention, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has always refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine launched by his Russian ally, has already appeared to give him veiled criticism during the summit by criticizing the “instrumentalization” of the food and energy supply and by explicitly rejecting the threat of recourse to nuclear weapons.
After meeting Joe Biden on Monday and then Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, he was due to meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, a first in nearly five years for the leaders of the two countries with very strained relations.
“China is a country with fundamentally different values from ours, with an authoritarian power that wants to reshape the international order,” Downing Street said. But the issues discussed at the G20 “cannot be addressed without coordinated action with all major world economies and that includes China,” the same source added.
