No consensus on Ukraine war at G20 meet; Russia accuses West of destabilising talks

A meeting of finance chiefs of the Group of 20 leading economies concluded at Bengaluru without a consensus on the Ukraine war. While most nations condemned Moscow for its war on Ukraine, China and Russia declined to sign a joint statement.

Despite India's reluctance to bring up the topic of war, Western nations insisted on condemning it as a necessary condition for supporting any outcome of the meeting hosted by India as chair of the Group of Twenty (G20) economies.

Meanwhile, Russia accused the West of destabilizing the G20 meeting by trying to force through a joint statement on Ukraine that stalled because of disagreements. "We regret that the activities of the G20 continue to be destabilized by the Western collective and used in an anti-Russian... way," the foreign ministry said.

Moscow accused the United States, the European Union, and the G7 nations of having ‘disrupted the adoption of collective decisions’ by trying to impose their ‘diktat’ by what they said was ‘clear blackmail’. Their aim had been to impose their interpretation of the Ukraine conflict in the joint statement by means of lobbying and "ultimatums", said the ministry statement.