France’s top diplomat warned of the dangers of increasing Kremlin aggression ahead of a tense United Nations Security Council meeting in New York that brought Ukraine and Russia face to face.
“Russia is lashing out at Europe in its entirety,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, condemning a wave of Russia attacks on European soil. “There’s not one state that is now not ill at ease.”
European countries were backed by African and Latin American allies in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the meeting, which saw a rare encounter with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. He and other foreign ministers are in New York for the annual UN General Assembly gathering.
As Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches the five year mark, there’s little sign of a resolution to the fighting despite the increasing toll that both sides are suffering.
“We are not going to do a pause in our special military operation,” Lavrov told the Security Council. He argued that European governments only want to see a halt in the fighting in order to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
Lavrov arrived in the Security Council chamber just before he was due to speak and left right after, missing other countries’ condemnations of Russia’s actions. He said European governments are responsible for the invasion.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stayed throughout, occasionally raising an eyebrow as Lavrov referenced “nazism” and the “Kyiv regime.”
All the same, Ukrainian officials have been angered this week by a French push to remove Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov from an EU sanctions list. France is holding up the bloc’s sanctions rollover as it seeks the release of two French prisoners from Azerbaijan.
The Trump administration has been pressuring both sides to find a way to end the fighting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has invited President Vladimir Putin to attend the Group of 20 summit in Florida in December.
People close to the Kremlin have suggested that Putin is likely to skip the G20 and instead attend a summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November.
On Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters that some of the European rhetoric on Russia is “too tough.”
“That dialog is too nasty,” Trump said, sitting alongside Zelenskyy.
“There’s no military solution to this war,” Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council. “Peace will require difficult choices from both sides.”
European officials are hoping that the increasing signs of strain on the Russia economy will ultimately force Putin to end his invasion and engage in meaningful peace talks, although there’s no sign now that the Russian president’s resolve is wavering.
“It is time ministers told President Putin the truth,” UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the council. “The world knows that Russia is failing in this war. The Russian people can feel it and ministers know it too. They should tell President Putin to end the bloodshed.”
With assistance from Magdalena Del Valle and Ellen Milligan.
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