European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Agence France-Presse that European officials confronted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov over Ukraine claims at G20 talks in Atlanta, while urging protection for Black Sea food routes.
Kallas told AFP Lavrov had offered “a lot of lies, a lot of false narratives” in the Ukraine discussion. The European External Action Service (EEAS) transcript of her public remarks neither mentions Lavrov’s disputed statements nor identifies which claims she called false.
In an official post, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he had urged Lavrov to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would not win the war. A transcript of Miliband’s plenary remarks published by LBC quotes him telling Lavrov to tell Putin that “he is not winning this war and will not win.”
Miliband cited a drone attack on a railway station in Dnipro on Oct. 29. Ukrainian police initially reported 13 deaths and 10 injuries; the regional administration later reported 15 deaths, the figure Miliband cited.
In remarks published by the EEAS, Kallas backed Ukraine’s call for an “immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire” and urged G20 partners to support a plan protecting passage through the Black Sea. She linked the threat to attacks on port facilities, farms and civilian vessels, saying they disrupted a key food-export route and put countries reliant on imported supplies, particularly in Africa, at risk. Kallas said global grain prices had reached their highest level since 2023 and warned that disruption to fertilizer trade through the Strait of Hormuz could add costs for farmers and consumers.
Kallas has also linked suspected drone attacks on Black Sea ships to pressure on Ukraine’s grain revenue, as EconoTimes previously reported about her Black Sea warnings.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry published Lavrov’s post-meeting remarks. He welcomed the U.S. leadership’s focus on G20 priorities and called the Europeans’ stance an “arrogant boycott.” AFP also reported that European leaders had avoided shared photographs with Russian delegations at other G20 meetings this year.
The G20 leaders’ summit is scheduled for Dec. 14-15 at Trump National Doral in Miami, the U.S. State Department said.
