The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was welcomed by the G7 leaders in the meeting room of the Borgo Egnazia resort. The first to greet Zelensky were the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with whom the Ukrainian president had a short and warm conversation. Just yesterday, the first fifty armored vehicles supplied under the agreement on
security agreement signed with Canada.
Zelensky then exchanged a few words with the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishidawith whom he will sign another agreement on security today, received the embrace of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenand greeted the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholzthe French president, Emmanuel Macronand the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
The leaders then sat around the large round table in the meeting room awaiting the arrival of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who then occupied the seat to the left of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to whose right Macron instead sat.
On the opposite side of the table, Zelensky sat between Von der Leyen and Michel, with whom he continued to speak intently for a few minutes until Biden arrived, later than the other leaders. The Ukrainian president then stood up to shake Biden's hand. Thus the G7 session on Ukraine, which is expected, officially began the announcement of a 50 billion dollar loan to be financed with the returns of Russian financial assets remaining in the West.
«I had a productive meeting with Giorgia Meloni and thanked Italy for its military, financial and humanitarian support to Ukraine». Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky writes this on X at the G7 in Borgo Egnazia. “We discussed the next steps of our defense cooperation, including Italy's contribution to strengthening Ukraine's air defense system and the preparation of a new military aid package.”