"Does Berlin understand what this could lead to?' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked in his speech at the UN General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders. "Didn't they not learn the lessons of World War II?"
Lavrov was dismissive after the German and Russian foreign ministers met on Saturday on the sidelines of the meeting, holding what's believed to be the first such tête-à-tête since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
"He simply reiterated his official public position condemning Russia," Lavrov said. "You can judge for yourself whether that counts as dialogue or not."
The meeting, at German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul's request, came just before Lavrov addressed world leaders.
A German delegation official said during their meeting, Wadephul called on Russia to abandon its "dangerous path of escalation" toward Germany, Europe and the NATO alliance.
Ties between Russia and Germany have soured in recent weeks, following an attempted drone attack last month at Leipzig airport - Germany has blamed the incident on Russia - and tit-for-tat responses that followed it.
Wadephul expressed openness to a better relationship but said it required a genuine willingness from Russia's leadership to end the war in Ukraine, according to the official.
Later, Lavrov told a UN news conference that "nothing new came from that initiative of the foreign minister."
He challenged Germany to name one commercial vessel in the Black Sea that was damaged or targeted by Russian strikes, asserting that "there are no such cases."
As for the claimed attempted drone strike at Leipzig Airport, he called it "an unclaimed drone" that Germany immediately said was Russian.
Lavrov denounced the West in his speech and at the press conference, saying it "aspires to inflict strategic defeat on Russia - but these aspirations will result in the war mongers being led into a strategic dead end."
He recalled last year's 80th anniversary of the Allied victory "over German Nazism and Japanese militarism" in World War II. And he made a point of blasting the notion of Germany or Japan gaining a permanent seat on the powerful UN Security Council.
In his attacks on the West, Lavrov also claimed, "the US has destroyed the European security system and created a Russophobic regime in Kyiv."
Russia believes an agreement on ending the Ukraine war was reached at the August 2025 meeting in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov said, "and we continue to remain ready to return to it."
"A fairer, multipolar world order is emerging before our very eyes," said Lavrov, whose country is part of the BRICS group of leading developing nations that he portrays as more forward-looking and constructive.
Moscow has repeatedly sought to stress that it maintains a strong position on the global stage despite its four-and-a-half year war on Ukraine and isolation from the West.
An overwhelming majority of UN member nations have repeatedly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as Wadephul noted in his address to the General Assembly.
"Russia's war targets the lives of millions of innocent people, the existence of the Ukrainian state and culture and the European peace order," he said, urging Russia to negotiating toward ending the fighting.
Since Russia launched the war, analysts have estimated that over 500,000 Russian troops have been killed. Ukraine has recorded more than 500,000 military casualties, including up to 140,000 deaths. Neither country discloses its own casualty totals.
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