Rishi Sunak has said that Russia should “get out of Ukraine and end this barbaric war” as he confronted Vladimir Putin’s officials at the G20 summit.
The British Prime Minister made the comments in the first session of Tuesday, as he criticized the absence of the Russian president in the talks on the Indonesian island of Bali.
“It is obvious that Putin did not feel able to join us here,” he said. “Perhaps if it had been, we could have gone on with fixing things.”
“Because the single biggest change anyone can make is for Russia to leave Ukraine and end this barbaric war.”
“The United Kingdom opposes this aggression. We will support Ukraine as long as necessary.”
Putin chose not to attend the talks with observers saying officials are seeking to protect him from “punishment” by world leaders.
Sunak also chided Russia, saying that “countries should not invade their neighbors.”
The British prime minister joined the leaders of the world’s 19 largest economies in Bali – the first meeting in the group’s 15-year history to be held in the shadow of a major European war instigated by one of its own members.