You have enough potential to stop Russia, Zelensky tells G7

summit have enough collective potential to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine and against Europe as a whole. This is possible.”

He warned that delays in shipping more weapons could encourage Mr Putin to launch more attacks on Kyiv, as well as other towns and cities.

Buildings smouldered in Kyiv and the streets were covered in debris after Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian capital over the weekend. The attacks, the first on Kyiv in weeks, were condemned by US President Joe Biden as “barbarism”.

At the G7 summit at the Schloss Elmau resort, Boris Johnson was this morning pushing the need for “strategic endurance” from the West to defeat Mr Putin’s military aggression.

He was calling for a three-pronged strategy of military and economic support for Ukraine, and a new drive to get grain out of the country, possibly with a massive rail operation, to stop millions of people starving, particularly in developing countries.

Mr Johnson, who has warned about “fatigue” around the world putting support for Ukraine in jeopardy as the conflict drags on, insisted there was unity among the G7 nations. “And what’s really struck me in the last couple of days has been the amazing consistency of our resolve, the continuing unity of the G7,” he said.

There had been concerns that France’s Emmanuel Macron, who has held talks with Mr Putin and warned that any peace deal must not leave Russia humiliated, had been wavering in support for a protracted conflict.

But Downing Street insisted there was no dispute between the UK and France over the issue, with the two leaders’ relationship characterised as “le Bromance” by No 10 aides.

Mr Johnson maintained that G7 leaders were united as “the logic of the position is still so clear, there is no deal that President Zelensky can really do”.

Mr Zelensky is also calling for more air defences to protect his country’s cities from missile strikes. “Partners need to move faster if they are really partners, not observers,” he said. “Delays in the transfer of weapons to our state, any restrictions are actually an invitation for Russia to strike again and again.”

Convoys of “grain trains” could transport wheat out of Ukraine under a huge rail operation being discussed to stop millions of people starving due to Russia’s blockade of Black Sea ports.

Environment Secretary George Eustice told LBC Radio: “It’s a big challenge. Ukraine is a significant agricultural producer and there are a lot of North African countries that depend on Ukraine for importing much of their wheat in particular.

“So, there are two things that we are trying to address at G7.

“One is, there are currently around 25 million tons of grain, mainly wheat in store in Ukraine from last year’s harvest. They have not been able to get that out through the Black Sea because obviously it’s a treacherous environment for shipping.” He added: “There are a lot of mines that are in that area at the moment and Ukraine themselves for security reason have had to close the port of Odesa. So, one of the things that we are looking at is whether we can give more support to Ukraine to help them get this stock of wheat out into the world market by rail.

“That would require us to support them to help them with the funding to repair some of those rail lines.” Ukraine previously supplied ten per cent of the world’s wheat, up to 17 per cent of maize and half of the world’s sunflower oil.

Britain has recently been pushing for a “coalition of the willing” to open up safe corridors through the Black Sea to export wheat and other food staples from Ukraine’s ports, with the use of the Royal Navy even being mooted. However, the focus is now on transporting the food supplies by land.