G7 offers Ukraine long-term support

Leaders of the world's richest democracies said yesterday they would not back down from supporting Ukraine, in a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he claimed to have taken the eastern city of Bakhmut, something Kyiv denied.

The Group of Seven (G7) summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima was electrified this weekend by the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who arrived on a French government plane to canvass for greater support against Russia's invasion.

Zelensky told reporters on the sidelines of the summit that the battered eastern city of Bakhmut, the focus of fighting in recent months, was destroyed.

"It is tragedy," Zelensky said. "There is nothing on this place" - what remained was "a lot of dead Russians."

There was confusion over whether he had been asked if the city was still in Kyiv's hands or Russian forces had taken Bakhmut, but a Zelensky spokesperson said the comments were a denial the city had fallen.

Zelensky later made his way to Hiroshima's peace memorial, where he laid flowers at the cenotaph to victims of the world's first nuclear bombing.

During the final day of the three-day G7 summit, US President Joe Biden announced a $375 million package of military aid, including artillery and armoured vehicles, for Ukraine.

He told Zelensky the United States was doing all it could to strengthen Ukraine's defence against Russia.

"Together with the entire G7 we have Ukraine's back and I promise we're not going anywhere," Biden said.

Putin hailed what he said was a victory for his forces, describing it as the "liberation" of Bakhmut in a statement on the Kremlin's website.

The assault on the largely levelled city was led by troops from the Wagner Group of mercenaries, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his troops had finally pushed the Ukrainians out of the last built-up area inside the city.

Other leaders of the G7 - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - echoed Biden's sentiments.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised that his country would support Ukraine for as long and as much as necessary.

Biden told G7 leaders Washington supports joint allied training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s warplanes, although Kyiv has not won commitments for delivery of the fighter jets.

The potential for such training on US-made F-16s was a message to Russia that it should not expect to succeed in its invasion by prolonging conflict, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.