German and Russian foreign ministers meet in New York for first talks since 2022 invasion

Ministerial talks resume in New York

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday, 26 September 2026, at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The direct conversation took place on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. This bilateral engagement marked the first formal meeting between the foreign ministers of Germany and Russia since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Lavrov, who has held the post of Russian foreign minister for more than 22 years, had last spoken in person with a German counterpart on 18 January 2022, when he hosted Annalena Baerbock in Moscow shortly before Russian troops crossed into Ukraine. The Saturday exchange was conducted entirely behind closed doors, with the ongoing war in Ukraine forming the central subject of the discussion.

Diplomatic rift and consulate closures

The diplomatic encounter followed a sharp escalation in tensions between Berlin and Moscow in the weeks leading up to the UN summit. In early August 2026, German authorities uncovered Russian involvement in an incident involving an explosive-laden drone directed at Leipzig airport. The security finding led the German government to formally accuse Moscow of hostile operations on German soil. Following the Leipzig incident, both governments moved quickly to sever local diplomatic ties, ordering the reciprocal closure of consulates across their respective territories. Consequently, the meeting between Wadephul and Lavrov in New York represented the first senior governmental contact between the two nations following those expulsions and office shutdowns.

Format demands and Russian reaction

According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, the initiative to hold the meeting came at the direct request of the German foreign minister. Zakharova noted that Berlin insisted on strict procedural constraints before agreeing to the sit-down, including restricting media access to the conference room and forbidding journalists from asking questions. The German side also prohibited the audio recording of opening remarks and placed limitations on publishing any materials from the private session. Zakharova commented on the bilateral arrangement across Russian state media and social networks:

And now, a representative of the 'beautiful garden', the German official Wadephul, has asked to meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia. What do you think? His team demanded restricted access for the media, the guarantee that no questions would be asked, the prohibition of audio recording initial statements, and the restriction of publishing any material.

Parallel diplomacy and ceasefire rejection

The bilateral session with Wadephul formed part of a busy diplomatic schedule for Lavrov in New York ahead of his formal speech to the UN General Assembly on Saturday morning. While at the UN headquarters, the Russian foreign minister also held a separate face-to-face meeting with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio. During those talks, Lavrov explicitly rejected an American proposal aimed at establishing a ceasefire in Ukraine, asserting that the Russian military would continue its ongoing offensive. Despite the refusal to halt hostilities and the procedural restrictions surrounding the German meeting, the New York discussions re-established direct high-level contact between German leadership and the Kremlin.