OPINION: Wadephul was right to see Lavrov, who answered de-escalation with “to the end”

Twenty-two minutes behind a closed door

In the Russian delegation’s room

Johann Wadephul spent 22 minutes behind closed doors with Sergey Lavrov on September 26, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The meeting took place in the Russian delegation’s room at UN headquarters, according to the Ukrainian site LIGA. That same Saturday, Russian strikes took the lives of four people in Ukraine, the AP reports.

A closed door in New York. Behind it, two ministers. Outside, a war that one of their governments launched four and a half years ago.

Twenty-two minutes, according to the Kyiv Post. A little over 20, according to LIGA. Long enough for a coffee.

Windows that shake

In Kyiv, that Saturday like every other, there is the dull rumble that makes the windows shake. There is the cold of the hallway tiles. There are the neighbors’ footsteps on the stairs.

Those hallways know nothing of the door in New York.

They pay for whatever comes out of it all the same.

This week’s question fits in a few words. Should that door have been opened?

I say yes. And I’ll say why.

A door shut in New York, windows shaking in Kyiv.

January 2022, the last time

Baerbock, a month before the invasion

The last meeting between German and Russian foreign ministers dated back to January 2022, the Kyiv Post recalls.

Annalena Baerbock met Lavrov then. Less than a month later, the Russian army invaded Ukraine.

January 2022, a meeting. February 2022, the invasion. September 2026, another door.

Four and a half years without a single meeting at that level. Embassies emptied. Consulates shut.

A German request

This time, Berlin asked for the meeting, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, quoted by Al Jazeera.

The meeting took place before Lavrov went up to the podium.

The order matters. Berlin spoke first, behind closed doors. Moscow answered afterward, in front of the world.

In between, no surprise. A confirmation.

Four and a half years of silence, then a door pushed open.

What Berlin put on the table

Off the path of escalation

Wadephul called on Russia to abandon its “dangerous path of escalation” toward Germany, Europe and NATO, the AP reports.

He demanded an immediate and complete ceasefire, according to Al Jazeera. He pressed Moscow to help reach a deal on grain exports across the Black Sea.

He warned that Leipzig and the other hybrid attacks would not shake Germany’s support for Ukraine, according to the Kyiv Post. He condemned Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

Wadephul’s condition

And he set a condition, LIGA reports.

Better relations between Berlin and Moscow remain possible. On one condition: that the Russian leadership show a serious will to end the war against Ukraine.

An outstretched hand. A condition written into it.

The list is short. It is clear.

Nothing to give up. Everything to ask.

He asked. He promised nothing in return, except the possibility of a return to normal relations. Nothing else was for sale.

Berlin holds out its hand, the condition in its palm.

“To the end,” from the podium

The September 26 speech

A few hours later, Lavrov took the podium at the General Assembly.

He vowed that what the Kremlin calls its military operation would be “carried through to the end,” UN News reports. He accused European governments of arming Ukraine while obstructing peace.

He rejected any permanent Security Council seat for Germany and Japan, and backed Brazil and India. Moscow would veto it, he said, according to the AP.

Berlin, called out by name

He went after Berlin by name. He asked whether Berlin understood where all this could lead, according to the AP. He invoked the lessons of the Second World War, which Germany, in his telling, has forgotten.

He quoted Putin: “the dictatorship of a single hegemon” had become dangerous for everyone, UN News reports.

He accuses Berlin of wanting to become Europe’s leading military power. He accuses it of being Ukraine’s main backer.

On that last point, he is right. It is a compliment he never meant to pay.

I stand with the hand Wadephul held out. With Kyiv, which says it is ready to stop firing.

Against the refusal Lavrov signed from the podium on September 26. Because when asked for an immediate ceasefire, he answered “to the end.”

Twenty-two minutes were enough to put a date on a refusal.

At the microphone, Moscow answered the closed door.

Nothing new, says Lavrov

Judge for yourselves

After the meeting, Lavrov dismissed it as worthless.

He said nothing new had come out of the German initiative. He said Wadephul had only repeated his public position condemning Russia. He said people could judge for themselves whether that counted as dialogue.

According to Al Jazeera, he added that Wadephul could just as well have read him his public statements.

And yet he came. He walked through that door too.

Nothing new. That is the complaint.

There is an irony in it. The minister who objects to repetition repeated, that very day, his line from the 23rd: no pause, to the end.

Hands to shake

Maria Zakharova, for her part, said “tens of diplomats” had come to shake Lavrov’s hand and thank Russia, according to the AP.

On the 23rd, 51 countries had signed a joint statement asking Moscow for a complete ceasefire, the Kyiv Post reports.

Hands shaken on one side. Fifty-one signatures on the other.

Who is counting hands?

Lavrov calls the condition he refuses “nothing new.”

September 23, at the Security Council

Kyiv ready to stop

Three days earlier, on September 23, Lavrov had already drawn the line at the Security Council.

Moscow will not suspend its operations during negotiations, whatever their format, he said, according to the Kyiv Post.

Across the table, Andrii Sybiha answered for Kyiv, according to the text published by his ministry.

Kyiv says it is ready for a complete, unconditional ceasefire. Kyiv says it is ready for truces on energy and food. Kyiv says it is ready to stop right now, right here.

One state stands in the way

Fourteen of the Council’s 15 members back an immediate ceasefire in one form or another, he said. Among them, the United States and China. A single state blocks it, and it is the aggressor.

Fourteen against one.

On September 24, he said it again to DW. Ukraine would accept an immediate ceasefire if Russia agreed to one.

A pause, he said, is necessary for any diplomacy that means something.

A total truce, or a long one, he specified. The offer is public. It is still waiting for an answer.

Moscow remains the main obstacle to ending the war, he told DW.

Kyiv offers to silence the guns, and Moscow refuses.

Leipzig, August 4

A drone packed with explosives

What was said in New York came after a month of rupture.

On August 4, a drone packed with explosives was found at Leipzig/Halle Airport. On September 1, Berlin concluded that Russia was responsible, the Kyiv Post recalls.

Moscow denies it. Lavrov speaks of a drone that no one has claimed, according to the AP.

The phrase does not say who sent it. It only says that no one signs for it.

Munich, September 3

On September 25, the German daily FAZ published information from German investigators, the ISW reports. They suspect Russian military intelligence. According to that information, incendiary devices targeted the Munich headquarters of Rohde & Schwarz and Helsing on September 3.

Helsing supplies the Ukrainian army.

One drone. Two fires. One month.

The German account skipped no step. An attribution, measures, fresh suspicions, then a meeting.

None of it has been ruled on. All of it is suspected by German services, and denied by Moscow.

Moscow denies, Berlin documents.

Talking is not giving in

The case against the meeting

I know the strongest argument against Wadephul. Moscow would gladly sign it.

Talking to Lavrov on the very day the Kremlin’s missiles and drones are hitting Ukraine hands him a photo of normality. Zakharova wasted no time showing off the handshakes.

That is serious. And it is wrong, for a simple reason. The meeting took nothing away from the pressure.

What Berlin has already done

Berlin has already shut the Russian consulate in Bonn. Berlin has already ended the agreement on the Russian House. Berlin has already expelled, on September 11, more than 150 Russian diplomats and members of their families. Berlin has already pinned Leipzig on Moscow. Berlin has already absorbed the retaliation: on September 7, Russia ordered the closure of the German consulate in St. Petersburg and of Goethe-Institut branches.

None of it was taken back.

The door in New York reopened none of it.

And Wadephul called Sybiha after the meeting. The Ukrainian minister thanked him for conveying “our firm shared positions” to the Russian side, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

Lavrov complained that he heard nothing new. That is the proof that nothing was given away.

There is the proof. It comes from Lavrov.

Talking without giving in: that is Lavrov’s complaint.

Twenty-two minutes for nothing

Lavrov is right about one thing

Now, the part that costs my own camp.

Lavrov is right about one thing. Nothing new came out of that room. No ceasefire. No grain deal. No de-escalation.

On September 23, Marco Rubio had also met Lavrov, Ukrainska Pravda notes. Same city. Same wall.

A German minister came. He left with a refusal. I won’t dress up the result: zero, on substance.

It is a failure. I am putting it in writing.

Pictures for the Kremlin

And the Kremlin got its pictures. Diplomats lining up to shake its minister’s hand, the very week 51 countries were calling for the fighting to stop.

The ISW judges, on September 26, that Putin is unlikely to agree to serious progress in any negotiation before the end of his winter 2026–2027 strike campaign.

That is true. The meeting changed nothing at the front.

It changed the record. The refusal now has a place, a date and a voice.

Nothing gained, everything on the record.

The Black Sea and the bread

Grain, a German request

One subject got an answer. Grain.

Wadephul pressed Lavrov to help reach a deal on exports across the Black Sea, according to Al Jazeera.

Lavrov replied that he was discussing the safety of navigation with India, Egypt and Turkey. Not with Berlin.

On the 23rd, Sybiha reminded the Council that 400 million people depend on Ukrainian grain, according to his ministry’s text.

The South as Lavrov’s audience

From the podium, Lavrov backed permanent seats for Brazil and India, and a bigger place for Africa, UN News reports.

He announced, with Belarus and other partners, the launch of a Eurasian charter on diversity and multipolarity.

In the same speech, he denounced Washington’s detention of Venezuelan President Maduro and the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, UN News reports.

Three days earlier, at the Council, Sybiha documented 3,000 mercenaries from 37 African countries, according to his ministry’s text.

Mercenaries recruited on one side. A seat for Africa at the Council on the other. Same city, same week.

In other words, Moscow talks to the South about bread and seats. To Berlin, it talks about militarization.

Both speeches fit into the same day.

Bread for the South, threats for Berlin.

While the door was shut

Saturday, four dead

Back to the closed door.

While the two ministers talked, the war did not stop. That Saturday, Russian strikes took the lives of at least four people in the Zaporizhzhia and Sumy regions, according to Zelensky, quoted by RFE/RL.

The next day, Sunday, eight people died under Russian strikes across the country, according to authorities quoted by AFP.

After four and a half years, the AP cites Western estimates of more than 500,000 Russian soldiers dead. On the Ukrainian side, more than 500,000 military casualties, including up to 140,000 dead.

Twelve in two days

Twenty-two minutes is how long the meeting lasted. Twenty-two minutes is an alert waited out sitting on the tiles. Twenty-two minutes is the time it takes to sweep up the glass from a window.

For 12 people, in two days, there is no door left to open.

Four. Then eight.

Twelve.

That is what “to the end” meant, that weekend.

Twelve dead in two days, while a door swung shut.

The condition is still on the table

More pressure before winter

What Berlin laid down still stands. Better relations, if the Kremlin shows a serious will to end the war.

Berlin remains what Lavrov blames it for being: Kyiv’s main backer. The charge doubles as a certificate.

In their call on September 27, Wadephul and Sybiha discussed ways to increase pressure on Russia and strengthen Ukraine’s resilience ahead of winter, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

That is the right order. Pressure first. The door afterward, to take note.

Arm. Sanction. Protect the airports. Then talk, if the other side is willing to listen.

One voice

Sybiha thanked Berlin for carrying shared positions.

What Kyiv welcomed was not dialogue. It was the same sentence, said to Lavrov’s face.

One voice. Not two.

And yet no closed door stops a ballistic missile.

A meeting serves to take note. Interceptors serve to protect. Sanctions serve to make someone pay.

Pressure first, meeting second, and never the other way around.

The refusal as evidence

A file for the capitals

What good is a dated refusal? It serves those who still have to convince others.

Capitals hesitating over sanctions, interceptors or the length of aid now have a Russian answer, delivered in a UN room, in front of an allied minister.

Lavrov said “to the end” from the podium. He said it after hearing the German condition.

Sybiha had his turn at the podium three days earlier. Both texts exist. It is enough to read one after the other.

A hesitant lawmaker can read two sentences. Kyiv’s, on the 23rd: ready to stop right now. Moscow’s, on the 26th: to the end.

The answer is written. It only needs reading.

This is not peace. It is a file. It serves those who decide what comes next.

Ottawa was not in the room

Canada was not in the room. It doesn’t need to be there to read the minutes.

A refusal spoken by Moscow weighs more, before a parliament, than a suspicion.

And yet a file is worth something only if someone opens it.

If no one opens it before winter…

A dated refusal outweighs a polite silence.

A door, a date

The doubt, then the date

I hesitated when I read the news. Seeing Lavrov on the day Ukraine was counting its dead struck me as a mistake.

I think so less today.

I don’t know whether another meeting will change anything. I know that a refusal spoken in front of a witness can be quoted. This text quotes it.

The closed door produced what statements never do. A refusal face to face. Then the same one, in public. The same day.

Ottawa and its minutes

Canada did not get its 22 minutes.

Should Ottawa ask for its own 22 minutes with Lavrov?

Not to obtain anything. To make him sign.

That is my choice.

There is no shortcut. There are dates, and we keep them.

Seeing Lavrov gave nothing away, and “to the end” now has a date.

Sources:

Primary Sources:

• UN News — Lavrov at the General Assembly vows to go “to the end,” September 26, 2026
• PBS NewsHour (AP) — Wadephul-Lavrov meeting and the Russian refusal, September 26, 2026
• DW — Sybiha interview on an immediate ceasefire, September 27, 2026

Secondary Sources:

• Kyiv Post — Berlin warns Moscow after 22 minutes behind closed doors, September 27, 2026
• Al Jazeera — Lavrov brushes off the German appeal, September 27, 2026
• Ukrainska Pravda — Sybiha and Wadephul after the meeting, September 27, 2026