welcome to the programme. ukraine has been a common theme at two major leaders summits. we will cover it all here tonight on the context. on the first day of their annual meeting injapan, g7 leaders agreed new sanctions against russia. meanwhile in saudi arabia, president zelensky made a surprise visit to the arab league gathering, urging those attending, to support ukraine. also making the headlines at that summit president assad of syria it s the first time he s been invited to the arab league since the devastating civil war, that s blighted the country. and later in the programme we have a special report from the new york times which has uncovered shocking evidence of the greek coastguard abandoning asylum seekers in the sea. but first let s focus in on the g7 summit injapan. the leaders have agreed new sanctions against russia. they said the measures would starve moscow of their technology, industrial equipment, and services that supported its war against ukraine.
colleague chris mason. we believe in democracy and the rule of law and it s right we stand up for those things with him again, we re better able to do that if we do it together. both the eu and us have already announced similar sanctions and last year at us presidentjoe biden set out plans to ban russian diamonds, seafood and vodka. the question now is whether western leaders can get agreement from other nations like india to further restrict russia. nations like india to further restrict russia. melinda haring is from the atlantic council s eurasia center. mai is a senior campaigner at the organisation global witness, which monitors russian energy closely. thank you forjoining us. melinda, looking at these new sanctions, if we cast our minds back to february 2022 the west responded to the russian invasion with some of the most wide reaching sanctions ever.