Top G7 diplomats at their talks in Germany on Thursday vowed to help Ukraine get through the coming winter, with Kiev’s fight against Russia high on the agenda.

“Winter is coming and Russia is systematically destroying the civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna after a meeting with G7 colleagues in Münster.

“Needless to say, we believe this is a humanitarian crisis,” she said, insisting that Western allies “would strengthen our coordination and … help Ukraine defend itself and help its people.”

At the start of the two-day meeting under the German G7 Presidency in Münster, the foreign ministers held a meeting on Ukraine on Thursday afternoon.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is also present, said Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to “give (Ukraine) a shadow over the winter”.

“Putin is waiting for the general winter and supporting the Russian army,” he said.

Earlier in the gathering, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had vowed that the allies would not allow Russia to “starve” the Ukrainians.

“We will not allow the brutality of this war to lead to mass deaths of old people, children, young people and families in the coming winter months,” said Baerbock.

The allies will provide generators, heaters, containerized housing, tents, beds and blankets, among other things, which will be part of a “winter relief package,” she said.

“Russia has chosen a new method of warfare by trying to starve, thirst and freeze people,” added Baerbock.

“That is exactly what we as G7 partners will try to prevent with everything we have, just as we will try to prevent the other perfidious methods of Russian warfare.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba remotely attended Thursday afternoon’s talks.

The G7 meeting comes as Germany prepares to hand over the chair of the group to Japan, which is facing multiple crises from Ukraine to North Korea.

Baerbock said the G7 had “strongly condemned” the latest missile salvo fired by North Korea, calling the exercises a “violation of international law”.

Relations with China were set to be discussed at a working lunch on Thursday as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz departed for a controversial visit to Beijing.

The G7 are ready to recognize China as “competitors” and “rivals,” Baerbock said.

“Japan … reiterates the importance of our acknowledgment that China has changed in recent years,” she said.

Scholz has insisted he will “not ignore controversy” during his trip.

Asked about the visit, Colonna said French President Emmanuel Macron “has also been invited to China and I have no doubt he will be going there in a few weeks or months.”

G7 foreign ministers are also expected to discuss Iran, which has been rocked by ongoing protests over the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

At a forum in Munster on democracy in the digital age on Thursday, Baerbock said the international community was “running out of time” to coordinate its response to the protests.

“It’s not just women. The diversity of Iranian society says: ‘This is enough and we want to live in freedom like many other countries,'” she said in English.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the same forum that Western allies were trying to “ensure that Iranians are able to communicate with each other and with the outside world.”

“Technology is at the core and making sure there are no barriers as far as we can tell,” he said.