British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he did not believe the case had yet been made for Russia to rejoin the G7 following its “provocations” in places like Salisbury, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Russia was pushed out of the G8 in 2014 because of its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The European Union subsequently slapped sanctions on Moscow after it supported rebels fighting Ukrainian troops in the east of the country.
The conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces has killed an estimated 13,000 people since 2014. A ceasefire deal brokered by France and Germany ended the major conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2015, though small-scale clashes still occur regularly.
French and German officials hope a leaders’ summit between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, known as the Normandy format, could be held before the end of the year. They last met in October 2016.