Russia must "end the aggression" of Ukraine and must "pay for the damage it has caused." The G7 leaders meeting in Borgo Egnazia reiterate in the final communiqué of the summit their commitment to supporting Kiev "for as long as necessary", clarifying once again that it is up to Moscow to take a step back. A position that is also expressed with an endorsement of Volodymyr Zelensky's so-called Peace Formula, which will be discussed at the Conference in Switzerland tomorrow and Saturday: this is the scheme from which to start to imagine the end of the conflict, and not the proposal put on the table in the last hours by Vladimir Putin, which in fact would be considered a surrender of the country victim of the invasion.
And while waiting for a peace that is apparently still far away, the strong appeal for the "Olympic truce" comes from Puglia, i.e. respect for the UN resolution adopted last December. The request is black and white in the conclusions of the summit, in view of the Paris Games in July. In the two-day summit in Puglia chaired by Giorgia Meloni, Zelensky achieved a lot. The Ukrainian president has signed two ten-year security agreements with Japan and above all with the United States, considered by Kiev as a door to integration into NATO. Borgo Egnazia also sanctioned the renewed political commitment of the main partners of NATO and Japan. Their support to Kiev will be "unshakable" from a "military, budgetary, humanitarian and reconstruction" point of view, "in the short and long term".
So weapons, aid for civilians and a huge amount of money: 50 billion dollars in the form of a loan that will be guaranteed by the profits of Russian assets frozen in Western (especially European) banks. As for Moscow, the Big 7 have called for its responsibility for the damage inflicted on Ukraine, which according to the World Bank now exceeds 486 billion dollars: repaying it is a "clear" obligation, sanctioned by "international law". For the leaders gathered in Puglia, guaranteeing Kiev the means to resist the invasion is the only viable path to achieving a "just peace". Nothing to do with that proposed by Putin, according to which Kiev should renounce the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson (annexed by Russia) and should undertake not to join NATO.
