Walkout at G20 and Berlin's energy pledge

What did Russia's isolation look like on 20 April 2022? In Washington, it looked like empty seats. Finance ministers from the United States and many European countries left a closed G20 session when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov began virtually delivering his prepared speech, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

The walkout followed a call by US President Biden to remove Russia from the G20. Such a step requires the consent of all members, and China appeared not to support it.

Germany sets a deadline

The same day, in Riga, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told a press conference alongside her Baltic counterparts that Germany planned to stop importing Russian oil and energy. Oil imports would be halved by the summer and then ended completely, reduced to zero by the end of the year, she said. Germany, she added, would give up Russian energy imports entirely.

Front line and diplomacy

On the battlefield, presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych claimed on 20 April 2022 that Ukraine was blocking an attempted Russian advance on Sloviansk, part of the eastern Ukraine offensive.

The previous day, 19 April, had brought other signals. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia would not use nuclear weapons and would keep using conventional arms, after American allegations that Moscow might resort to them. Also on 19 April, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said Beijing would strengthen its strategic ties with Russia and confirmed support for President Putin, while Russian forces faced accusations of war crimes over the killing of civilians.

Taken together, the reports from 19 and 20 April 2022 showed Western capitals moving to isolate Russia financially and in energy, while China signalled it would stay close to Moscow.