Bragging that “The U.K. was the first country to recognize the scale of the threat and send arms to help the Ukrainians defend themselves,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson increased a $300 million arms shipment promised to Ukraine last week fourfold, to $1.3 billion, as a meeting of the G7 once-industrialized nations convened virtually today with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This roughly doubles London’s previously granted aid to Ukraine since the start of March, and the shipment is planned to be all weaponry.
In the G7 virtual meeting, the heads of state and government decided to put sanctions on Gazprombank, trying to make it impossible for those disobedient nations wanting to pay Russia with rubles for natural gas, to do so. And they pledged (once again) to boycott Russian oil. “We commit to phase out our dependency on Russian energy, including by phasing out or banning the import of Russian oil,” their statement said. “We will ensure that we do so in a timely and orderly fashion. We will work together and with our partners to ensure stable and sustainable global energy supplies and affordable prices for consumers.” That last is just what they have not done and in fact have no intention of doing. (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/05/08/g7-leaders-statement-2/)
