Rishi Sunak confronts Russian leaders at G20, says Putin should have come to 'face us'

Leaders who lead the world's 19 top economic nations are attending the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. However, there is one exception and that is Russian President Vladimir Putin. After initial reports that he will attend the summit, in the end, he decided to skip the G20 summit. 

UK PM Rishi Sunak lamented Putin's absence and said that Putin should have decided to meet world leaders face to face. According to a report from The Guardian, Rishi Sunak used his address at the opening session of the summit to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and highlighted the threat it posed to the international order. Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was present at the opening session of the summit.

What did Rishi Sunak say? 

The new UK PM criticised Russia's crimes against civilians. “One man has the power to change all of this. It is notable that Putin didn’t feel able to join us here. Maybe if he had, we could get on with sorting things out," said Sunak. “Because the single biggest difference that anyone could make is for Russia to get out of Ukraine and end this barbaric war," he added. 

“Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has profound implications for us all, because it has undermined the fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. We all depend on these principles. They are the foundations of the international order. They must be upheld. It is very simple – countries should not invade their neighbours, they should not attack civilian infrastructure and civilian populations and they should not threaten nuclear escalation. Surely these are things on which we can all agree," the British PM said.

He also talked about the alleged weaponization of energy and food and called for an end to the grain crisis. Ukraine is one of the most significant producers of grain in the world and the invasion has led to fears of food insecurity along with wild speculation in the Chicago Grain Futures. 

“The weaponization of energy and food is totally unacceptable. Two-thirds of Ukraine’s grain goes to developing countries, yet Russia has destroyed grain stores and blocked shipments," said Sunak, although he did not provide any evidence to back the claim that Russia targeted grain stores. “It is harming the most vulnerable people around the world. And this has nothing to do with sanctions. All of us should support the secretary general’s efforts to get the Black Sea grain initiative back on track," Sunak concluded. After the US, the UK has supplied Ukraine with the highest number of armaments. UK's NLAWs helped Ukraine significantly against Russia's armoured divisions.