World leaders at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi adopted a declaration that avoided directly criticizing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but called on all member states to refrain from the use of force for territorial gain. In language agreed upon by all members — including Russia and China — the group pledged to “refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Japan and Ukraine had agreed to begin drafting a bilateral agreement on security guarantees. “I am confident that our partnership — between Ukraine and Japan — will become a global example,” he said Saturday in his nightly address, noting that Ukraine was already working with the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada on similar agreements.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
The G-20 declaration noted that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was critical for delivering grain to developing nations, especially those in Africa. The declaration called for the “full, timely and effective implementation” of the deal — which seeks safe passage for fertilizer and grain from three Ukrainian ports — though Moscow pulled out of the deal in July.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi arrived in Kyiv on Saturday, where he met with Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Zelensky said he also met with Japanese business leaders, with whom he discussed opportunities for collaboration in areas such as infrastructure, technology and agriculture.
Romania said it found drone fragments on its territory near the Ukrainian border. Its Defense Ministry said Saturday that the pieces were “similar to those used by the Russian army.” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement that the discovery, which came after drone parts were recovered earlier last week, was “an absolutely unacceptable violation of the sovereign airspace of Romania, a NATO ally.” He said he spoke with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who called the strikes “destabilizing” and who said he welcomed the U.S. decision to “deploy more F-16s for NATO air policing.”
Russia said it destroyed eight drones over Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses stopped the alleged attack in the early morning hours on Sunday. Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak criticized SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk for cutting off Starlink satellite internet services to Ukrainian submarine drones last year. The drones were launching an attack on a Russian fleet based in Crimea. Musk has defended his decision, saying he did not want SpaceX to be “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
Putin has framed the invasion of Ukraine as a war against “Satanists,” liberal Western values, and “parent number one and parent number two,” Robyn Dixon reports. And in July, he signed an astonishingly repressive law dissolving transgender people’s marriages, barring them from adopting children and preventing them from changing their gender in state documents.
His venom is echoed by many, from state television propagandists to politicians. And as the war has ground on, Russia has witnessed increasingly harsh measures against these groups.
