Inside the talks leading to a step-down in the G20’s Ukraine declaration

After hundreds of hours of negotiations and more than a dozen drafts, representatives of the world’s richest nations faced a difficult choice late Friday evening: Accept watered-down language about Ukraine in a final G20 declaration, or have no declaration at all.

As the clock ticked down, the leaders chose the former, hoping to avoid open fractures within their group, a ding to the G20’s credibility and embarrassment for the summit’s host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.