German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on September 26, the first talks between the two countries' foreign ministers since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (left) and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul shake hands after their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

The meeting, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly debate, lasted just over 20 minutes in a room provided by the Russian side and ended with a handshake, Der Spiegel reported, citing the German delegation. Wadephul urged Lavrov to "abandon the dangerous path of escalation towards Germany, Europe and Nato" and warned that incidents such as the attempted attack on Leipzig airport in early August would further damage already badly strained relations, the delegation said.

The encounter breaks a four-year freeze at the top of German-Russian diplomacy but produced no sign of a thaw. The last German foreign minister to sit down with Lavrov was Annalena Baerbock, in January 2022, a month before the invasion. Since then Berlin has for the first time directly accused Moscow of orchestrating an attempted drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle airport and closed Russia's consulate in Bonn. Moscow retaliated by shutting Germany's consulate in St Petersburg, and the two ministers clashed at the UN Security Council earlier in the week, Politico reported. Russia's foreign intelligence service has countered that Nato intelligence services found no Russian involvement and pointed to Ukraine instead.

Lavrov gave a dismissive account of the talks at a press conference in New York later the same day. "When we met, I asked him to explain what he came with. He pulled out notes and read a text that completely reproduced what Germany's leaders publicly state daily," he said, Interfax reported.

"I told him honestly: I thought you had something interesting, something unusual, but you could have simply called and said: read my UN speech," Lavrov said, adding that Moscow "never refuses to listen to colleagues, even those who accuse Russia of all mortal sins".

Wadephul gave his own account to ZDF the same evening. "It was an intense conversation. Of course, we did not reach agreement on key points," he said. "I clearly warned Russia not to continue like this. We can defend ourselves, we can resist, and we will do so," he said, adding that he had offered Lavrov a chance to de-escalate, above all over Ukraine. He said he had agreed to the meeting because he did not want "us Europeans to leave all dialogue with Russia completely to the Americans", and that whether there would be further talks "lies essentially in Russian hands".

Nevertheless, the meeting broke the ice on the diplomatic freeze in relations between Europe and Russia since the war began. Since the Trump administration withdrew from brokering talks between Russia and Ukraine after the start of Operation Epic Fury in February, Europe has failed to find an interlocutor to restart talks. Wadephul earlier said that Trump’s invitation to the G20 summit later this month in America could signal the start of serious talks to end the four and half year war in Ukraine.

But little progress was made at this meeting. According to the German delegation, Wadephul told Lavrov that a return to a more constructive relationship was possible "at any time" but required a genuine willingness in the Kremlin to end the war, which was "not yet apparent". He condemned Russia's increasingly targeted strikes on Ukrainian civilians and said the solution had been obvious from the first day: an end to the aggression, a withdrawal of Russian troops and a lasting ceasefire.

Wadephul also pressed Russia to reach a deal on grain exports through the Black Sea, saying time was short given food shortages across the global south, the foreign ministry in Berlin said. Russian and Ukrainian strikes on each other's ports have already set off a food price shock. Lavrov rejected any suggestion that Russia threatens shipping. "Name even one case where commercial vessels acting in your interests became targets of Russian strikes - there are none. All damage comes from Ukrainian terrorist attacks," he said.

The two sides also gave different versions of who asked for the meeting. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it had been held behind closed doors at Berlin's request, according to Tass. Rather than give a detailed readout, Zakharova pointed to a Russian report questioning the authenticity of the Bucha massacre, which appears to have been put on the table during the meeting, Politico reported. German officials said Lavrov had first signalled through unnamed third countries that he was ready to talk, and that Wadephul had taken him up on it, agreeing to meet him for the first time since taking office.

Wadephul was in New York standing in for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who stayed at home under pressure after heavy losses for his Christian Democrats in state elections, including in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the party fell below the 5% threshold. A day earlier in Ottawa, Wadephul called US President Donald Trump's invitation to Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami in December "a litmus test" and a possible "start to serious negotiations", Politico reported, a warmer tone than the chancellery's line that relations with Russia are not "business as usual".