the world s most advanced economies are meeting injapan, with america signalling it s willingness to back the supply of f 16fighterjets, and the training of ukrainian pilots, in the war with russia. meanwhile, moscow s closest ally in the middle east, syria s bashar al assad, received a warm welcome at a summit of arab leaders in saudi arabia, after years of international isolation. during syria s bloody civil war, it was massive russian military support that allowed assad, condemned by many as a war criminal, to cling onto power. details on that later in the programme but first, to the g7. the bbc s nick marsh is in hiroshima for us and we can bring him in now. nick, a lot of news coming out of the g7 so far. much of the initial talks have been members recommitting to the defence of ukraine and some big news involving fighterjets ukraine and some big news involving fighter jets and sanctions as well today. involving fighterjets and sanctions as well today. yeah that s righ
leaders, but each hold huge potential to shape the trajectory of the war in ukraine. at the g7 summit, in the japanese city of hiroshima, presidentjoe biden told leaders the us was prepared to give the go ahead to train ukrainian pilots on f16 fighter jets. some details remain unclear, like who would supply the jets, and how many pilots would be trained. britain, the netherlands, belgium and denmark have expressed support for the plans. president zelensky welcomed the move, and said it would greatly enhance the ukrainian army in the sky. i count on discussing the practical implementation of the decision at the g7 summit in hiroshima . that is what he tweeted. president zelensky is due tojoin the g7 group in hiroshima in the coming days, where its expected he ll address leaders, and hold a meeting with us president, joe biden. but on friday, he was in saudia arabia for an arab league summit. of those present, only syria has openly supported the russian invasion. others have s
with g7 leaders in an effort to drum up support and weapons for an expected counter offensive against russia. mr zelensky will address the leaders of the major western democracies during meetings on sunday. while the war in ukraine continues to dominate those summit talks the war itself is raging on. bakhmut has been the focus of the longest and bloodiest battle of the war but the leader of russia s private wagner group has said the city has now been taken. russia has been trying to take bakhmut since last year in a grinding war of attrition. and in the last few minutes, the russian news agency interfax says president putin has congratulated troops for capturing the city. earlier, ukraine says its units are still fighting in the city. this comes on the heels of the us agreement to allow ukrainian pilots to train in american made f 16 jets to help with its fight against russia a move moscow and china have criticised. here now, our political editor chris mason, who s in h
first, the g7, where seven of the world s most advanced economies are meeting injapan with america signalling it s willingness to back the supply of f 16 fighterjets, and the training of ukrainian pilots, in the war with russia. meanwhile moscow s closest ally in the middle east, syria s bashar al assad, received a warm welcome at a summit of arab leaders in saudi arabia, after years of international isolation. during syria s bloody civil war, it was only massive russian military support, that allowed assad, condemned by many as a war criminal, to cling onto power. the summit was also attented by the ukrainian president, volodymr zelensky, who is due tojoin the g7 group in hiroshima on sunday, where it s expected he ll address leaders and hold a meeting with us presidentjoe biden. details on that later in the programme, but first, the news of more military support for ukraine just a few hours ago, us national security advisor jake sullivan spoke about the us f16jets plan. jus
as you ve been hearing, leaders of seven of the world s top economies are meeting in the city of hiroshima. but it s the two that aren t attending that will be talked about the most. as well as new sanctions on russia they ll be focusing on china and how to counter its increasing economic power. as the bbc s nick marsh in hiroshima explains. the g7 kicked off and the two biggest issues on the agenda are a war in ukraine and the economic containment of china. on that first subject the us got off to a quick start before the summit had even begun. they announced a fresh batch of sanctions targeting russia and its ability to source battlefield materials. they are also trying to tighten the ability of russia to use third country loopholes to evade those sanctions. britain as well has announced a ban on the importation of russian diamonds, of copper, nickel, aluminium as well that comes from russia. these are the actions of individual countries. the real challenge will be when ther