Rishi Sunak condemned Russia as a “pariah state” on Monday as he prepared to deliver a rebuke to a member of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle over the invasion of Ukraine.
Britain will continue to support the Ukrainians in defending themselves against Russian aggression, and to help put Kyiv in a position of strength for when they feel the time is right for peace talks, he said.
Mr Sunak will be the first prime minister since the February invasion to speak directly to a Russian representative when he confronts Mr Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, face to face around the conference table at the G20 summit in Indonesia on Tuesday.
Mr Sunak said he would take the opportunity, alongside Western allies, to “unequivocally condemn the Russian state and Putin for their abhorrent and illegal war”.
He told reporters travelling with him to Bali that it was “telling” that Mr Putin was skipping the annual summit of world leaders, having announced just days ago that he was sending Mr Lavrov in his place.
“Russia is becoming a pariah state and he’s not there to take responsibility for what he’s doing,” said the prime minister.
“But I’m going to use the opportunity to put on the record my condemnation of what they’re doing. I will do that in the hall, I will do that if I see [Mr Lavrov] elsewhere, and that’s the right thing to do.”
Mr Sunak said it was a question for the Ukrainians to decide when the time is right for talks to end hostilities.
But he said there was little sign of Moscow being ready to get round the table to discuss peace.
“That’s a question for the Ukrainians, they will decide their approach to negotiations,” he said.
“Of course, they want to see – as does everybody – a peaceful resolution to this.
“But I view our job – and I think our allies are in the same place – as putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position for an eventual negotiation. That’s our job, and ultimately the Ukrainians will then decide the basis of those talks.”
But he added: “Nothing that Russia is doing at the moment suggests that they are committed or interested in that approach right now.”
Mr Sunak said it would be “unfair” to tell Ukraine to enter negotiations at a time when Russia is continuing with “very aggressive military action” and civilian infrastructure is being “relentlessly bombed”.
He said: “It’s right that we’re standing up to aggression, that’s the right thing for us to do that’s what I think the British people also believe.”
The G20 summit comes with Mr Putin’s invasion in disarray after he withdrew troops from Kherson, the only provincial capital they managed to seize in their assault on Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is not attending the summit, deemed the Russian withdrawal from the region “the beginning of the end of the war” when he made a surprise tour of the recaptured southern city.
Meanwhile, Mr Lavrov yesterday denied local reports in Indonesia that he had been taken to hospital.
Three Indonesian government and medical officials said he was taken to hospital following his arrival. Two said Mr Lavrov was being seen for a heart condition, while the governor of Bali later said Mr Lavrov left hospital following a “check-up”.
“This, of course, is the height of fakery,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Mr Lavrov then appeared in a video, apparently taken from his hotel room in Bali, in which he said the reports about his health were a “political game”.
