By John Irish, Jarrett Renshaw and Andreas Rinke KANANASKIS, Alberta (Reuters) -Group of Seven leaders faced early challenges during meetings in Canada on Monday as U.S. President Donald Trump said removing Russia from the former Group of Eight over a decade ago had been a mistake.

Donald Trump said it was a “big mistake” to exclude Russia from G7 summits as he used his opening remarks of the meeting in Canada’s Rocky Mountains to lament the group’s treatment of Moscow.

US President Donald Trump has said that G7 should be expanded to include Russia and China. He said that the war in Ukraine would not be there if Russia were still a part of G8 — ignoring the fact that Russia was expelled as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014.