
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the G20 summitandthe Kremlin also dismissed all reports of him addressing the world leaders via video conference. While answering questions about Putin’s plans regarding the summit in Indonesia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian President will not be travelling to Bali due to his busy schedule.
Defence minister Sergio Lavrov will represent Russia at the summit in the absence of Putin and Yulia Tomskaya will continue to serve as the chief of protocol at Russia's embassy in Jakarta.
This would have been the first time that Putin would have appeared at the same event as United States President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the past couple of months, a lot of speculation surrounded the meeting between the two leaders but with Kremlin’s official confirmation, there will be no meeting between the top leaders of Ukraine and Russia.
Meanwhile, Russian defence ministry confirmed on Friday that the troops have completed their evacuation from Ukraine’s Kherson region. The region was annexed by Russia following a series of referendums which were considered to be “sham” by the US and most western countries.
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The TASS news agency reported that the army made their evacuation from the side of the Dnipro river in what was being considered to be a major setback for Russia. The Russian authorities defended their decision to evacuate as a “strategic move”.
The Ukrainian military has already entered Kherson with the local people welcoming them on arrival.