Sunak tells Putin to 'get out of Ukraine'

Vladimir Putin avoided the two-day gathering of the leaders of the world’s 20 richest economies. 

He has been humiliated in recent days after the Russian occupation of the southern city of Kherson was brought to an end by Ukrainian forces.

On Tuesday, there were reports of Russian airstrikes across the country, including attacks in Kyiv.

Among regions where officials reported strikes were Lviv, in the west, and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the north east.

Kyiv’s mayor said strikes on Ukraine’s capital hit three residential buildings and that air defence units had shot down other missiles.

A Ukrainian air force spokesman said that Russia had fired around 100 missiles in a countrywide strike.

In his speech to the G20, Mr Sunak said President Putin should have attended the summit. 

“Maybe if he had, we could get on with sorting things out,” he said.

According to a Downing Street transcript of his speech to the closed session, the Prime Minister said: “Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has profound implications for us all, because it has undermined the fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“We all depend on these principles. They are the foundations of the international order. They must be upheld.

“It is very simple – countries should not invade their neighbours, they should not attack civilian infrastructure and civilian populations and they should not threaten nuclear escalation.”

He said the economic issues “we should be focusing on today are made much, much worse” by Moscow’s actions.

“The weaponisation of energy and food is totally unacceptable,” he said, adding that Russia is “harming the most vulnerable people around the world” by destroying grain stores and blocking shipments.

Mr Sunak urged fellow leaders to support the renewal of a deal allowing grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to ease the global food crisis.

He continued: “One man has the power to change all of this.

“It is notable that Putin didn’t feel able to join us here. Maybe if he had, we could get on with sorting things out.

“Because the single biggest difference that anyone could make is for Russia to get out of Ukraine and end this barbaric war.”

The Prime Minister said he “rejects this aggression” as he vowed to “back Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Mr Sunak later told Channel 5 News it was “vital” for him to confront Mr Lavrov at the summit.

“I felt a responsibility to make sure that he heard unequivocally the condemnation, not just of the United Kingdom but from allies across the G20,” the Prime Minister said.

“Russia’s war is illegal, it is barbaric, it is causing enormous around the world. It’s vital that behaviour is called out and that’s what I wanted to do.”

His comments came as reports of horrific crimes emerged from Kherson. 

The UN human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner said her teams were looking to travel to the area to try and verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention.

The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Igor Klymenko, said authorities are to start investigating reports residents that Russian forces set up at least three alleged torture sites in now-liberated parts of the wider Kherson region and that “our people may have been detained and tortured there.”

“Mine clearance is currently under way. After that, I think, today, investigative actions will begin,” he said on Ukrainian TV.

Meanwhile, Mr Sunak told reports that he hoped to meet with Chinese president Xi Jingping, as he moved to soften his position on Beijing.

He told reporters travelling with him to Indonesia: “My view is that China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests and it represents the biggest state-based threat to our economic security.

“I think that view, by the way, is highly aligned with our allies.”

During the Tory leadership campaign in the summer, he declared China “the biggest-long term threat to Britain”, while also promising to close all 30 of Beijing’s Confucius Institutes in the UK.

However, he said that China was also "an indisputable fact of the global economy and we’re not going to be able to resolve shared global challenges like climate change, or public health, or indeed actually dealing with Russia and Ukraine, without having a dialogue with them.”

Mr Sunak left open the possibility that he could meet Mr Xi, saying ahead of the Bali gathering: “Hopefully I will have a chance to talk to him too.”

China-sceptic Sir Iain Duncan Smith criticised the Prime Minister's softening stance. He told Talk TV: “He said in the summer, categorically, that he considered China to be a systemic threat.

“So what we’re seeing here at the moment, I think, is the beginnings of a step away from his original position…

“It’s time to call them out as what they are, a threat, but I hope he’s not about to do a U-turn, it would be completely wrong.”

In the margins of the summit, Mr Sunak also met with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

However, he did not raise the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, alleged to have been assisted on the orders of the Gulf state’s leader. 

A Downing Street spokesman said the two leaders “discussed the importance of continued UK-Saudi co-operation in the face of regional security threats and international economic instability”.

“In light of the global increase in energy prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Prime Minister said he hoped the UK and Saudi Arabia could continue to work together to stabilise energy markets.

Amnesty International said it was "disappointing that the Prime Minister apparently didn’t raise the need for justice for Jamal Khashoggi’s calculated murder at the hands of agents of the Saudi state."