The exclusive G7 warns that Russia will have “serious consequences” if Ukraine were to attack

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) – The Group of Seven warned Russia on Sunday that President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine would have serious consequences and serious costs, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.

U.S. intelligence estimates that Russia may plan a multi-front offensive in Ukraine next year with 175,000 troops.

The Kremlin denies that it intends to invade and claims that the West is taking over Russia. Moscow says NATO expansion threatens Russia and violates guarantees given when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

At a meeting in the northern English city of Liverpool, G7 representatives said they were united in condemning Russia’s military force near Ukraine and calling on Moscow to land.

“Russia has no doubt that further military attacks on Ukraine will have serious consequences and serious costs,” the draft statement said, according to G7 sources.

“We reaffirm our firm commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as to the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future,” the draft states.

For Moscow, it is a “red line” that will not allow NATO’s growing growth in a former neighboring Soviet republic – and which it sees as a nightmare for allied missiles aimed at Russia in Ukraine.

Putin has called for binding legal security to prevent NATO from extending further east or placing weapons near Russian territory; Washington has repeatedly said that a country cannot live up to Ukraine’s NATO hopes.

In 2014, Russia took over the Crimean Black Sea Peninsula from Ukraine, and the West imposed sanctions on Russia.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that Putin had told US President Joe Biden that Russian troops were not under threat and that they were demobilizing Moscow for moving troops into its territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were very serious conceptual differences between Russia and the United States on Moscow’s “red lines.”

The G7 is made up of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the United States, and is represented by the European Union.

“We call on Russia to repeal, pursue diplomatic channels and meet international commitments on the transparency of military activities,” the G7 said in a draft.

“We reaffirm the efforts of France and Germany in the Normandy format to achieve the full implementation of the Minsk Accords in order to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” the draft reads.