Zelenskiy Tells G7 That Russia Must Be Fully Isolated As He Seeks More Antiaircraft Weapons From Allies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has addressed a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) after two days of deadly air strikes on Ukrainian cities, urging the leaders of the world's industrial powers to block Russia's energy sector with further sanctions to disrupt Russian revenues from oil and gas.

Speaking to the summit virtually on October 11, Zelenskiy said a "tough price cap" is needed for the exports of oil and gas from Russia, which he said had started a new stage of escalation with attacks on October 10-11 that killed at least 19 people and hit power stations.

"Russia must be completely isolated and punished -- punished both politically and in terms of sanctions," he said.

"Such steps can bring peace closer -- they will encourage the terrorist state to think about peace, about the unprofitability of war," Zelenskiy told the leaders of the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

The G7 leaders in a statement condemned Russia's recent missile attacks and said they would hold [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and those responsible to account but did not say how.

"We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime," the statement said.

The White House later pledged to speed up shipments of air defenses to Ukraine, while Germany promised delivery to Ukraine "in the coming days" of the first of four IRIS-T SLM air defense systems capable of protecting a city.

In his speech, Zelenskiy also asked the leaders for more air-defense capabilities to neutralize aerial attacks, saying that when Ukraine receives such systems, "the key element of Russia’s terror -- rocket strikes -- will cease to work."

He thanked all countries that have already helped Ukraine secure its air-defense systems, particularly the United States and Germany, but said that, according to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia has ordered 2,400 drones from Iran.

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In addition, Zelenskiy asked the G7 countries to back his initiative for an international observer mission on Ukraine's border with Belarus to monitor the security situation.

"The format can be worked out by our diplomats. I ask you, on the level of the G7, to support this initiative," he said.

Zelenskiy also said the G7 must recognize that there can be no dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said only believes in terror and "has no future."

Talks can be held either with another Russian leader -- one who "will comply with the UN Charter, the basic principles of humanity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine," he said, or with a different configuration of negotiators "so that the key terrorist does not have the opportunity to influence key decisions through terror."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on October 11 that Moscow was open to talks with the West on the Ukraine war but had yet to receive any serious proposal to negotiate.