An important US source stated on Friday at discussions in Germany that the G7 wants Russia to extend a pact permitting the safe transit of grain shipments from Ukraine.
Everyone agreed that the Black Sea grain program needed to be extended, the official said.
Top G7 diplomats are in Münster, in western Germany, for two days of talks with the conflict in Ukraine at the forefront of the agenda.
According to the official, the club of nations “appreciates the UN’s efforts to persuade Russia to extend” the grain agreement.
Following international pressure, Russia agreed to a deal enabling their safe passage, and grain supplies from Ukraine resumed on Thursday.
Moscow, however, claimed it had not yet decided whether to prolong the grain agreement past November 19, which was set down as a renewal deadline in the initial pact negotiated by the UN and Turkey to avert a worldwide food emergency.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed for an extension of the agreement while in China.
Scholz stated on Friday that hunger “must not be exploited as a weapon.”
Top G7 ambassadors charged Russia with deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure in Ukraine on Thursday.
According to the US source, “they agreed that some type of G7 coordinated mechanism is needed to help Ukraine rebuild, defend, and recover its energy and water infrastructure.”
The official stated that Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, attended the conference and “gave an update on the terrible attacks… on civilians, electricity and water systems.”
The G7 ministers pledged a winter relief package that will include heaters, generators, accommodation in shipping containers, tents, beds, and blankets.
Russia has “picked a new technique of warfare by trying to let people suffer, die of thirst, and freeze to death,” according to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
