War should end before winter sets in, Ukrainian President Zelensky tells G7

In a virtual address to the G7 Summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he wanted the ongoing war waged by Russia against his country to end before winter.

The BBC reported that the Ukrainian President asked the G7 leaders reconstruction aid, anti-aircraft defence systems, help on grain exports and security guarantees.

He also asked to "intensify sanctions" on Russia.

A day before his address, Zelenksy said in his address to the nation that delaying arms deliveries to Ukraine was "an invitation to Russia to strike again and again", reports the BBC.

"Partners need to move faster if they are really partners, not observers," he said and called for air defence systems.

Over the weekend, Russia fired a barrage of missile strikes on Kiev, the central city of Cherkasy where one person died, and the Kharkiv region, along with Chernihiv in the north and Zhytomyr and Lviv west of the capital.

The strike on Starychi district in Lviv was just 30 km from the border with Poland, reports the BBC.

On Saturday, the key eastern city of Severodonetsk also fell to Russia, which gave Moscow the control of nearly all of Luhansk region and much of neighbouring Donetsk, the two Russian-backed separatists regions that form the industrial Donbas.

The war in Ukraine is top of the G7 agenda.

While German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that Russian missile strikes showed it was "right to stand together and support Ukrainians", US President Joe Biden claimed that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was counting on NATO and the G7 to "splinter... but we haven't and we're not going to".

Later this week, Zelensky is also expected to address the NATO Summit in Madrid.

--IANS

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