Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s participation in the Group of Seven summit is making some atomic bomb survivors feel the visit is overshadowing their pursuit of nuclear abolishment
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s last-minute participation Sunday in the Group of Seven summit has brought intense global attention to Russia’s invasion of his nation. But it has also worried atomic bomb survivors who said the high-profile visit overshadowed a rare chance to push world leaders to focus on nuclear abolishment.
Zelenskyy’s inclusion at the G7 gathering of rich-world democracies — and his pursuit of more weapons and other support for Ukraine, rather than a diplomatic pursuit to end the war — sends the wrong message, activists and victims said.
“Zelenskyy’s visit is not appropriate for Hiroshima, which is a peace-loving city,” said Etsuko Nakatani, an activist whose parents survived the Hiroshima atomic bombing in 1945.
Many Hiroshima residents hope that understanding the city’s tragic past will push leaders to « take up the abolition of nuclear weapons as an urgent political issue, not an ideal,” she said. “But support for nuclear deterrence has persisted, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to have justified it further.”
Yuta Takahashi, a Hiroshima-born activist, believes that Zelenskyy’s visit threatens to send a message « that justifies the need for nuclear deterrence in order to save Ukraine from becoming another Hiroshima,” he said.
