G7 Leaders Slam Russia with New Sanctions as Ukraine Demands More Air Defense After Monastery Attack
G7 leaders are pushing U.S. President Donald Trump to maintain support for Ukraine, unveiling fresh sanctions against Russia’s oil revenue and pledging hundreds of millions in energy aid, as Kyiv reels from a deadly drone strike on a UNESCO-listed monastery.
At the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s financial networks and its “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, vowing to “choke off” Russian revenue used to fund the war [173544][173546]. The UK will also provide hundreds of millions of pounds to help Ukraine with nuclear energy, including enriched uranium for its power plants [173544][173546]. Separately, the UK Navy stopped a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel, with Starmer calling it “another blow against Russia” [172505].
French President Emmanuel Macron urged the U.S. to tell Ukraine: “We are with you, we will continue to support you, and we will increase the pressure on Russia to achieve a meaningful negotiation” [173546][173457]. Macron stressed that European nations now carry nearly the entire financial burden of the war, while the U.S. provides weapons and intelligence [173457].
The European Union announced a new round of sanctions targeting 34 individuals and 47 entities linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine, including Russia’s Lukoil-Western Siberia and two Chinese companies that supply drone components [173458]. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described a recent attack on a monastery in Ukraine as a war crime [173458]. France’s foreign minister compared the monastery strike to “bombing Notre-Dame” and pushed for stronger EU sanctions [173464].
On the battlefield, a drone set fire to an oil depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, causing panic-buying due to fuel supply disruptions [173546]. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said two Russian drones “deliberately” targeted Kyiv’s monastery quarter, setting the UNESCO-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra site on fire and killing 11 people across the country [173546]. He called the attack “one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date” and urged G7 leaders to take “decisive and substantive” action, including more air defense support [173546].