Sergii Marchenko at the G20 meeting: Russia is the cause of the global crisis, and we must stop it by imposing more severe sanctions on it

On July 15, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko participated in the G20 meeting. He urged the leaders of the G20 countries to increase the sanctions pressure against the Russian Federation in order to stop the war and the global world crisis.

The meeting held in Indonesia gathered G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, the IMF, the World Bank, the European Commission, the ECB, the UN and the WTO leaders. The session was devoted to the discussion on the preconditions and consequences of the growing global economic crisis.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen once again outlined the efforts of the Ukrainian government and Minister Marchenko in the face of a full-scale Russian invasion. Also, Janet Yellen and other representatives strongly condemned the actions of Russia in Ukraine, outlining the devastating consequences for the whole world.

Finance Minister of UK Nadhim Zahawi noted that Great Britain will continue to support Ukraine. He emphasized that it is only Russia's actions that caused the global food and energy crises. Representatives of Canada, Germany, France, Italy and other participating countries expressed solidarity with this position.

Key points made by Sergii Marchenko during his speech at the G20 meeting are:

Balance-of-powers politics has to be put under question. It is being completely transformed now. The world order was being settled on certain perceptions, conditioned within a long time in history. But everyone at this G20 meeting should realize that these perceptions and these conditions no longer exist. And the war, which Russia started, clearly marks the end of the existing world order. 

I think that Russia got stuck in the world order of the 19th century, with the aggressive outward expansion of the colonial powers. And this fact is more than enough not to treat Russia as the global player in the 21st century.

During the previous G20 meeting I was raising the point about the right time for the right choice. And if not the right choice, the world finance system might turn to shuttering. Unfortunately, we already see – it is turning to it.

The civilized world is getting mired into the number of severe crises. But the reason for the food insecurity crisis, energy price hikes crisis, cost-of-living crisis, humanitarian crisis is not war in Ukraine, as we usually hear and read in the media. The phrase ‘war in Ukraine’ doesn’t even contain the word ‘Russia’. But it is only Russia itself which caused all these crises, and made life in almost each of your countries harder, more uncertain, and turbulent.

Russia makes the UN and IMF puzzle over how to save African countries from hunger disaster. Russia makes the ECB puzzle over how to stoke inflation in the eurozone. Russia makes the US puzzle over energy security worldwide. 

Isn’t it a way too much honor for a terrorist state, which Russia is, to get so many countries around the world wallowed into the problems it created?

We need to stop the cause of these problems. The true practical solution, which works properly towards this aim, is imposing more severe targeted sanctions. 

I urge you to join efforts in this - to stop Russia from their actions directed not only against Ukraine, but against all of us. 

It’s not about making the right choice in choosing the side. It’s about living in the world of mutual respect versus the world, where nothing is established, and no borders are respected. Let’s not reverse the progress we made in building the world order.