G7 focusing more support on helping Ukraine protect against energy grid attacks

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani (not pictured) for bilateral talks at the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Muenster, Germany, November 4, 2022. Martin Meissner/Pool via REUTERS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said the Group of Seven countries is focusing more of its security support on helping Ukraine protect against Russia's attacks on its energy grid.

"The G7 agreed to create a new coordination group to help prepare, restore and defend Ukraine's energy grid - the very grid that President Putin has brutalized," Blinken said after a two-day meeting in the western German town of Muenster.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Ghana's Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, British Secretary for Foreign Affairs James Cleverly, the Deputy Chairperson for the African Union Commission Monique Nsanzabaganwa, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Kenya's Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua attend a working session at a G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting, at the City Hall in Muenster, Germany November 4, 2022. Bernd Lauter/Pool via REUTERS

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing Daphne Psaledakis and Rami Ayyub; editing by Jonathan Oatis)