Ukraine’s war casts a shadow over the G-20 meeting

The foreign ministers of the Group of Twenty began bilateral talks on Thursday in the Indonesian resort of Bali, where the expanded ministerial forum will be held today, which is expected to be dominated by the Ukraine war, knowing that the agenda focuses on international cooperation and global food and energy security.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intensified his activity in Indonesia, in an effort to counter attempts to “isolate Russia”. And he was keen to make contacts with a number of ministers whose countries do not fall into the category of “unfriendly countries”, which Moscow accuses of trying to isolate and fight them collectively.

Efforts to isolate Lavrov’s participation in the meeting emerged, by ignoring the ministers of the European Community and the United States to hold meetings with the Russian minister, and avoiding taking protocol photos or arranging any contacts, as appeared in a comment by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, or even attending joint public events, It also emerged through the absence of the Japanese Foreign Minister on Wednesday from attending the official dinner of the group’s ministers due to the presence of Lavrov.

On the ground, the Ukrainian forces, who were forced to withdraw from the Lugansk region last week, have resumed attacks on the areas on the outskirts of the breakaway region. According to military reports, the Russian forces faced several attacks using rockets and missiles along the contact lines during the last day.

At the same time, the announcement by the Russian security forces about finding caches used as weapons and missile depots in Kherson indicated an escalation of counter-attacks by Ukraine.
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