NUSA DUA, INDONESIA (REUTERS) - US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen condemned Russia’s “brutal and unjust war” in Ukraine and said Russian finance officials taking part in a Group of 20 (G-20) meeting in Indonesia on Friday (July 15) shared responsibility for the “horrific consequences” of the war.

Dr Yellen, speaking at the opening session of the gathering of G-20 finance ministers and central bankers on the Indonesian island of Bali, welcomed Ukraine’s finance minister and blamed the negative spillovers of the war “solely” on Russia, a Treasury official said.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maksimov was in Bali for the meetings, while Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was participating virtually when Dr Yellen spoke, a source familiar with the matter said.

Dr Yellen told reporters on Thursday that Russian officials had no place at this week’s meeting of the G-20 major economies, and called on the global community to hold Russia accountable for the war and its dramatic impact on energy prices and rising food insecurity.

The US finance chief urged G-20 members to scale up and accelerate financial assistance to help Ukraine, whose Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko was present at the opening session.

“I condemn Russia’s brutal and unjust war in the strongest possible terms,” Dr Yellen said. “By starting this war, Russia is solely responsible for negative spillovers to the global economy, particularly higher commodity prices.”

She said Russian officials participating in the meeting were “adding to the horrific consequences of this war through their continued support of the Putin regime”.

Addressing Russian officials, she said: “You share responsibility for the innocent lives lost and the ongoing human and economic toll that the war is causing around the world.”

Also speaking at the opening session was Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who said that failure by G-20 finance chiefs at the meeting to reach consensus could be catastrophic for low-income countries amid soaring food and energy prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

Dr Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia would be an honest broker and find creative solutions to overcome the "triple threat" of surging commodity prices, global inflation and war.

G-20 finance leaders meet on Friday on the resort island of Bali, as host Indonesia tries to find common ground in a group frayed by the Ukraine war amid rising economic pressures from soaring inflation.

Dr Yellen is pushing hard for other countries to back a proposed cap on the price of Russian oil to help lower energy prices and maintain global oil flows after European and potentially British and US sanctions on the transport of Russian oil take effect at the end of the year.

Failing to adopt such measures, she told reporters on Thursday, would shut in a significant amount of Russian oil and drive global oil prices higher.

It was not immediately clear if Western officials would leave the room when Russian officials spoke, as they did in Washington during the last meeting of G-20 finance officials in April.

That meeting ended without a communique nor any announcements of agreements.

Indonesia has said it wants the meeting to come up with actions to tackle a looming food crisis that would hit poor countries the most.

Dr Yellen said one of her key objectives was to push G-20 creditors, including China, to finalise debt relief for countries in debt distress.