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The US is opposing Russia calling the aggressor in a G7 statement on the third anniversary of Moscow’s full -scale occupation in Ukraine, threatening to disrupt a traditional manifestation of unity, according to five Western officials familiar with the issue.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s participation in a G7 virtual summit on Monday has not yet been agreed, officials said.
The dispute comes after US President Donald Trump blamed Ukraine for the war, described Zelenskyy as a “dictator without election”, and suggested that Russia be invited to G7 again.
US envoys have opposed the phrase “Russian aggression” and similar descriptions used by G7 leaders since 2022 to describe the conflict, Western officials said.
The main economies in the world have traditionally issued a statement of support on February 24, the day on which the full -scale occupation began three years ago.
“We are convinced that there must be a distinction made between Russia and Ukraine. They are not the same,” one official told this Financial Times issue.
“Americans are blocking that language, but we are still working for it and hopefully a deal,” the official added.
In a further blow on Thursday, a planned press conference after talks between Zelenskyy and Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine was canceled at the request of the US side, according to officials in KyIV.
Zelenskyy was expected to talk to reporters along with Keith Kellogg, but the event was called by US officials after the meeting began, the Ukrainian presidential office said.
The US Embassy in Kyiv refused to comment, but Zelenskyy said on Thursday evening that he had a “good, full -time conversation” with Kellogg.
The two discussed the situation on the battlefield, Zelenskyy said, “as well as effective security guarantees.. We have proposed the fastest and most constructive way to achieve results.”
The change in American language in Russia marked a contrast to last year, when the country’s aggression was mentioned five times in the G7 leaders statement.
The 2024 statement said: “We urge Russia to immediately stop its fight of aggression and to completely and unconditionally attract its military forces from the internationally recognized Ukraine territory.”
Trump administration’s insistence on alleviating language reflects a wider shift in US politics to describe the war as “Ukrainian conflict,” two people known with the issue.
Recent statements from the US State Department use similar formulations, including a reading from the meeting of Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, which mentions “conflict in Ukraine” twice.
Change marks a departure from the language used by the Biden administration, which often used phrases such as “Russian aggression” to refer to the greatest land war in Europe since World War II.
The dispute over the statement comes after a week in which Trump has distributed Putin, agreed on many of his demands regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, and showed a willingness to normalize Washington’s relations with Moscow, sending senior officials Americans to meet senior Russian officials Tuesday in Riyadh Tuesday.
Trump has also falsely claimed that Zelenskyy had an approval rating in Ukraine of just 4 percent. A survey published this week showed that the president enjoyed 57 percent home support, from 52 percent in December, according to the Kyiv International Sociology Institute.
Putin has responded warmly to the Overtaking of the Trump administration. “US negotiators were completely different – they were open to a negotiating process without any prejudice or judgments on what was done in the past,” Putin said after the Riyadh meeting. “They intend to work together.”
