UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s top diplomat rejected German calls to ease off its “dangerous path of escalation” toward the country, instead accusing Germany of being Ukraine’s main sponsor and seeking to be a leading military power in Europe.
“Does Berlin understand what this could lead to?” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked Saturday in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders. “Did they not learn the lessons of World War II?”
Lavrov was dismissive after the German and Russian foreign ministers met Saturday on the sidelines of the meeting — believed to be the first such tête-à-tête since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“He simply reiterated his official public position condemning Russia,” Lavrov said. “You can judge for yourself whether that counts as dialogue or not.”
The meeting, at German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul’s request, came just before Lavrov addressed world leaders, where he also criticized the militarization of Japan. He made clear that Russia would veto any attempt by Germany and Japan for permanent seats on the Security Council, the U.N.’s most powerful body. The two nations fought Russia, Britain and the United States in World War II.
A German delegation official said that during the meeting, Wadephul called on Russia to abandon its “dangerous path of escalation” toward Germany, Europe and the NATO alliance. Ties between Russia and Germany have soured in recent weeks, following an attempted drone attack last month at Leipzig airport — Germany has blamed the incident on Russia — and tit-for-tat responses that followed it.
Wadephul expressed openness to a better relationship but said it required a genuine willingness from Russia’s leadership to end the war in Ukraine, according to the official.
‘Nothing new came,’ says Lavrov
Later, Lavrov said at a U.N. news conference that “nothing new came from that initiative of the foreign minister.”
He challenged Germany to name one commercial vessel in the Black Sea that was damaged or targeted by Russian strikes, asserting that “there are no such cases.” As for the claimed attempted drone strike at Leipzig/Halle Airport, he called it “an unclaimed drone” that Germany immediately said was Russian.
Lavrov denounced the West in his speech and at the news conference, saying it “aspires to inflict strategic defeat on Russia — but these aspirations will result in the warmongers being led into a strategic dead end.”
He recalled last year’s 80th anniversary of the Allied victory “over German Nazism and Japanese militarism” in World War II. And he made a point of dismissing the notion of Germany or Japan gaining a permanent seat on the Security Council. The United States has long supported permanent seats for those countries and India.
Japan’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Mikanagi Tomohiro, responded to Lavrov at the end of the assembly meeting, stressing that his country is “peace-loving” and that “freedom, democracy and fundamental human rights remain unshakable foundations of Japan’s every decision and action.”
In his attacks on the West, Lavrov also said that “the U.S. has destroyed the European security system and created a Russophobic regime in Kyiv.”
Russia believes an agreement on ending the Ukraine war was reached at the August 2025 meeting in Alaska between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov said, “and we continue to remain ready to return to it.”
“A fairer, multipolar world order is emerging before our very eyes,” said Lavrov, whose country is part of the BRICS group of leading developing nations and other organizations that he portrays as more forward-looking and constructive.
Russia emphasizes position on global stage
Moscow has repeatedly claimed that it maintains a strong position on the global stage despite its 4½-year war on Ukraine and isolation from the West.
Writing on her personal Telegram channel, Maria Zakharova, chief spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said that “tens of diplomats” had come to meet Lavrov to “shake his hand and thank Russia.”
An overwhelming majority of General Assembly member nations have repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Wadephul noted in his address to the assembly Saturday.
“Russia’s war targets the lives of millions of innocent people, the existence of the Ukrainian state and culture and the European peace order,” he said, urging Russia to negotiate toward ending the fighting.
Lavrov’s speech came amid an intensifying aerial war. With front-line positions largely unchanged since last year, Russia has hammered Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, powerful glide bombs and jet-powered drones in recent months, while Ukraine’s long-range drones have targeted Russian oil refineries and businesses.
Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks killed four people Saturday, as Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack killed three.
Since Russia launched the war — which Moscow describes as a “special military operation” — Western analysts have estimated that more than 500,000 Russian troops have been killed. Ukraine has recorded more than 500,000 military casualties, including up to 140,000 deaths. Neither country discloses its own casualty totals.
Ukraine war reverberates globally
The war has had global repercussions for fuel, fertilizer and grain shipments — and for geopolitics, widening divisions between Russia and the West.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his assembly speech Wednesday to press other countries to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impede its war efforts, and he echoed that message on social media Saturday morning.
“It is essential that our partners not forget: Russia is escalating every single day,” he wrote, adding that “the world must choose stronger responses to keep the war from spreading further.”
U.S. lawmakers passed a powerful sanctions bill aimed at Moscow last month. Trump signed the bill into law last week but hasn’t enacted the measures yet.
Now back in Ukraine, Zelensky told reporters in voicemail messages Friday that Washington is pushing for three-way technical talks involving delegations — but not top leaders — from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia. He said Ukraine is waiting for the United States to propose a date.
Lederer, Peltz and Keaten write for the Associated Press. Keaten reported from Geneva. AP writer Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.
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