While many Ile-de-France residents are working from home this Friday, the capital being heavily impacted by an RATP strike, the leaders of the G7 countries will soon be talking remotely, too. Announced by a spokesperson for the German government this Friday, this virtual meeting will focus on the Ukrainian crisis.
It will take place next Thursday between 3 and 4:30 p.m. (French time), said during a regular press briefing a spokesman for the German government, which this year holds the presidency of the G7. It should also be used, according to the German government, to prepare for the G7 summit to be held from June 26 to 28 at Elmau Castle in Bavaria.
High tensions in Ukraine
The announcement of this meeting comes amid renewed tension in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists, a source of additional concern in a Russian-Western crisis that has threatened to degenerate into conflict for weeks.
Some 150,000 Russian soldiers are deployed according to the United States and Kiev on the Ukrainian borders. Americans and British on Thursday accused Russia of seeking a pretext to attack and that the conflict between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists on its territory could become one.