G7 attempting to ensure Ukraine reconstruction using 'Russian funds'

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During a virtual meeting held on Tuesday, G7 country leaders said in a joint statement they are exploring ways to ensure Ukraine's reconstruction is supported with sanctioned Russian assets, which they described as "Russian funds."

"Ensuring Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction, including exploring avenues to do so with funds from Russia; pursuing accountability for Russia crimes committed during the war," the G7 said in the joint statement.

The virtual meeting was held in response to Russia's precision-guided missile strikes yesterday. Moscow launched these attacks in retaliation for Ukraine's attack on the Crimean Bridge, which links Russia with Crimea.

The joint statement said the member countries will "continue to coordinate efforts to meet Ukraine's urgent requirements for military and defense equipment."

Nord Stream pipeline

Regarding the damage caused to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the statement said the G7 members were "deeply troubled" by the deliberate damage caused to the pipelines and welcomed investigations into the incident.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said late Monday that Stockholm had no plans to allow Russia to participate in the ongoing probe into the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

"In Sweden, preliminary investigations are confidential, and this is certainly true in this case," Andersson said, according to AFP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of being behind the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines. He said it had already "practically begun to destroy shared European energy infrastructure," stressing that "it is obvious to all who is profiting from this."

Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday that a NATO mine destroyer was discovered around the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline in November 2015.

Spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov recalled how NATO claimed at the time that the device was lost during exercises conducted in the region. He also highlighted how the device was pulled out by the Swedish armed forces, who then defused it.

Previous reports said Flightradar24 data showed that US military helicopters habitually and on numerous occasions circled for hours over the site of the Nord Stream pipelines incident near Bornholm Island earlier in September.