Macron hails US alignment with G7’s ‘shared commitment’ on Ukraine

Emmanuel Macron has said the whole of the G7, including the US, recognises “the territorial integrity of Ukraine” as he hailed a “re-synchronisation” of positions on the issue. The French president welcomed a “very deep change in the US approach”, saying Donald Trump and all the leaders present at the G7 summit at Évian-les-Bains understood that Vladimir Putin was not interested in peace. “President Trump, like all of us, simply acknowledged that there was no serious willingness on Russia’s part today to discuss peace,” he said. Macron repeatedly emphasised a “shared commitment to making progress on this issue”, which he described as “a very profound shift and remobilisation of the G7”. The annual G7 meeting brings together the leaders of the world’s biggest economies: the US, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada and Japan. Macron’s remarks were in sharp contrast to last year’s G7, when the chasm between Trump’s courtship of Putin and European support for Kyiv was so marked that the US president walked out early and there was no attempt to agree on a final statement. Trump also met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, twice on the margins of the summit. Zelenskyy updated Trump on the Ukrainian military’s progress, which apparently impressed the US leader. The summit’s joint communique vowed to increase sanctions on Russia , including in the energy field. Trump met Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the summit. …