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• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Saturday to attend the Group of Seven (G7) leaders' summit, one day after leaders of some of the world's biggest economies agreed to ramp up sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

• G7 leaders announced on Friday that they had ensured Ukraine had the financial backing it needed for this year and early 2024, writing in a statement that they were taking "new steps to ensure that Russia's illegal aggression against the sovereign state of Ukraine fails."

• The U.S. has announced sanctions against more than 300 targets linked to Moscow, intensifying some of the harshest such measures so far implemented. They focus on Russia's attempts to circumvent existing sanctions, Moscow's future energy revenues and its military-industrial supply chains. 

• Russia announced plans to expel "500 Americans" from entering the country "in a response to the regularly anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the Joe Biden administration," according to a statement from Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Those banned included former United States President Barack Obama, and several U.S. senators. 

• U.S. President Joe Biden is set to announce at the summit a $375 million weapons package for Ukraine that includes artillery, ammunition and HIMARS rocket launchers. 

• Biden also told G7 leaders that Washington would support joint efforts to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. Russia's Foreign Ministry said Western countries were running "colossal risks" if they supplied Ukraine with the jets.

• The UK has announced plans to ban imports of Russian diamonds, copper, aluminium and nickel while publishing a new wave of sanctions against Moscow, targeting companies connected to the alleged theft of Ukrainian grain.

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Hiroshima summit, their first meeting since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine in February 2022.

• G7 leaders also called on participants of the Black Sea Grain deal "to continue and fully implement its smooth operation... for as long as necessary" after the agreement was extended for two more months earlier this week. Its extension came a day before Russia could have quit the pact over Western sanctions affecting its grain and fertiliser exports.

• The Air National Guardsman accused of leaking U.S. military secrets directly related to the Ukraine conflict has been ordered to remain in jail as he awaits trial on charges of violating the U.S. Espionage Act.

• Ukraine says it has repelled attacks by Russian forces trying to recapture land around the strategic city of Bakhmut, where Kyiv says it has inflicted heavy Russian casualties. The head of the Russian Wagner private army said that "heavy, bloody battles" were continuing in the city, claiming his men were close to completing the capture of Bakhmut.

IN DETAIL

Zelenskyy at the G7 summit

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in Japan on Saturday to attend the G7 summit, giving him an opportunity to build up further support from some of the world's richest nations while attempting to gain backing from "Global South" leaders with long ties to Russia.

The Ukrainian president's attendance at summit in Hiroshima, the first city to suffer a nuclear attack at the hands of the U.S., highlighted concerns over the nuclear threat posed by the Ukraine conflict. 

G7 members - the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada - are grappling with the challenges posed by their decoupling with Russia over its assault on Ukraine.

French and European officials said it was important for Zelenskyy to make his country's case in person, first at a meeting of the Arab League, which he addressed on Friday, and now at the G7.

"We have to use all the means to bind non-aligned states to the cause of the defense of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," a French presidential official told reporters.

So far, Zelenskyy met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the summit's sidelines.

He will hold bilateral meetings with other G7 leaders, but also the leaders of India and Brazil, two countries that have attempted to remain neutral in the conflict. 

Both Brazil and India are members of the BRICS grouping that also includes Russia.

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