KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Monday that he welcomed the statements from the United States and China from the Group of 20 meeting on the inadmissibility of threats to use nuclear weapons.
“This is a grouping of very weighty states. And today, on the eve of the summit, weighty statements have already been made,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, referring to the G20 as G19 in what seemed a pointed message that he did not consider Russia part of the group.
“In particular, it is important that the United States and China jointly highlighted that the threats of using nuclear weapons were unacceptable. Everyone understands to whom these words are addressed.”
On Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that nuclear war must never be fought, according to the White House, and opposed the threat of nuclear weapons use in Ukraine.
(Reporting in Kyiv by Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Writing in Melbourne by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Leslie Adler)
