G7 Abandons Joint Ukraine Statement as Zelenskiy Says Diplomacy in Crisis 

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney poses for a family photo with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio Costa, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, World Bank President Ajay Banga, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney poses for a family photo with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio Costa, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, World Bank President Ajay Banga, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025. (Reuters)
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G7 Abandons Joint Ukraine Statement as Zelenskiy Says Diplomacy in Crisis 

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney poses for a family photo with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio Costa, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, World Bank President Ajay Banga, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney poses for a family photo with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio Costa, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, World Bank President Ajay Banga, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025. (Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy leaves the Group of Seven summit on Tuesday with new aid from host Canada for its war against Russia but without a joint statement of support from members or a chance to meet with US President Donald Trump.

The G7 wealthy nations struggled to find unity over the conflict in Ukraine after Trump expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and left a day early to address the Israel-Iran conflict from Washington.

Canada dropped plans for the G7 to issue a strong statement on the war in Ukraine after resistance from the United States, a Canadian official told reporters.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa would provide C$2 billion ($1.47 billion) in new military assistance for Kyiv as well as impose new financial sanctions.

Zelenskiy said he had told the G7 leaders that "diplomacy is now in a state of crisis" and said they need to continue calling on Trump "to use his real influence" to force an end to the war, in a post on his Telegram account.

Although Canada is one of Ukraine's most vocal defenders, its ability to help it is far outweighed by the United States, the largest arms supplier to Kyiv. Zelenskiy had said he hoped to talk to Trump about acquiring more weapons.

After the summit in the Rocky Mountain resort area of Kananaskis concluded, Carney issued a chair statement summarizing deliberations.

"G7 leaders expressed support for President Trump’s efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine," the statement said.

"They recognized that Ukraine has committed to an unconditional ceasefire, and they agreed that Russia must do the same. G7 Leaders are resolute in exploring all options to maximize pressure on Russia, including financial sanctions."

Canada holds the rotating G7 presidency this year. Other leaders do not need to sign off on G7 chair statements. "There would be things that some of us, Canada, included, would say above and beyond what was said in the chair summary," Carney said at a closing news conference.

Trump did agree to a group statement published on Monday calling for a resolution of the Israel-Iran conflict.

"We had a declaration given the exceptional, fast moving situation in Iran," Carney said. "We concentrated on that as a specific one. I held this (Ukraine)for my chair summary."

A European official said leaders had stressed to Trump their plans to be hard on Russia and Trump seemed impressed, though he does not like sanctions in principle.

Three European diplomats said they had heard signals from Trump that he wanted to raise pressure on Putin and consider a US Senate bill drafted by Senator Lindsey Graham, but that he had not committed to anything.

"I am returning to Germany with cautious optimism that decisions will also be made in America in the coming days to impose further sanctions against Russia," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

G7 leaders agreed on six other statements, about migrant smuggling, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, wildfires, transnational repression and quantum computing.

KREMLIN SAYS G7 LOOKS 'RATHER USELESS'

Trump said on Monday he needed to be back in Washington as soon as possible due to the situation in the Middle East, where escalating attacks between Iran and Israel have raised risks of a broader regional conflict.

A White House official on Tuesday said Trump explained that he returned to the US because it is better to hold high-level National Security Council meetings in person, rather than over the phone.

Upon arriving at the summit, Trump said that the then-Group of Eight had been wrong to expel Russia after Putin ordered the occupation of Crimea in 2014.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Trump was right and said the G7 was no longer significant for Russia and looked "rather useless."

Many leaders had hoped to negotiate trade deals with Trump, but the only deal signed was the finalization of the US-UK deal announced last month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained at the summit after Trump left.

Carney also invited non-G7 members Mexico, India, Australia, South Africa, South Korea and Brazil, as he tries to shore up alliances elsewhere and diversify Canada's exports away from the United States.

Carney warmly welcomed Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Tuesday, after two years of tense relations between Canada and India.



Jailed PKK Leader Ocalan Says Armed Struggle with Türkiye Over

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo
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Jailed PKK Leader Ocalan Says Armed Struggle with Türkiye Over

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), appeared in a rare online video on Wednesday to declare the group's armed struggle against Türkiye over and called for a full transition to democratic politics.

In the recording, dated June and released by Firat News Agency, which is close to the PKK, Ocalan urged Türkiye's parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage a broader peace process.

"The phase of armed struggle has ended. This is not a loss, but a historic gain," he said. "The armed struggle stage must now be voluntarily replaced by a phase of democratic politics and law."

The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union, decided in May to disband after an initial written appeal from Ocalan in February.

Since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984 – originally with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state – the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, imposed a heavy economic burden and fueled deep social and political divisions.

The video marks a rare and potentially pivotal moment in the long-running conflict, offering what could be President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most significant opportunity yet to seal a political settlement to the Kurdish issue, should his government choose to respond, Reuters reported.

It also comes before PKK militants begin handing over their weapons in groups in northern Iraq's Sulaymaniyah on Friday, in a major step in the process.

Seated in a beige polo shirt with a glass of water on the table in front of him, Ocalan appeared to read from a transcript in the seven-minute video – the first public footage or audio of him since his arrest in 1999. Six other jailed PKK members sat beside him, all looking directly at the camera.

He said the PKK, which has been based in northern Iraq's mountainous regions in recent years, had ended its separatist agenda.

"The main objective has been achieved – existence has been acknowledged. What remains would be excessive repetition and a dead end," he said.

Ocalan added that Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM Party, the third largest in parliament and which played a key role facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision, should work alongside other political parties to advance the peace process.

The PKK and DEM expect Ankara to address Kurdish political demands, potentially before weapons in Türkiye are handed over.

Ocalan's message came a day after Ibrahim Kalin, head of Türkiye's MIT intelligence agency, visited Baghdad for high-level meetings with Iraqi officials, the agency said. Kalin had earlier visited Erbil in northern Iraq as well.

Talks focused on strengthening border security and steps toward a "terror-free Türkiye," with the Iraqi government voicing full support for joint efforts to eliminate armed groups from the region.