EU's Kallas says Lavrov told 'a lot of lies' at G20 talks; UK and Canadian ministers say they confronted him over Ukraine

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told “a lot of lies” during G20 foreign ministers’ talks in Atlanta on Friday 30 October, including on the war in Ukraine, Euronews reported, citing an interview with AFP.

“We were talking about the big geopolitical crisis, including Ukraine, and we were able to address Sergey Lavrov head on with this,” Kallas said. “Of course, he put forward a lot of lies, a lot of false narratives” that Europeans challenged, she added.

British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband said he told Lavrov in the plenary session that “he should have the courage to tell Putin that Russia will not win this war,” according to Euronews. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand told Reuters she “stared him in the eye” and raised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the taking of Ukrainian children and attacks on Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea.

At a news conference on Friday, Lavrov welcomed Washington’s willingness to talk to Moscow and criticised what he called Europe’s “arrogant boycott”. “This is a good lesson for our European colleagues,” he said, according to Euronews. Lavrov also said Moscow’s position was unchanged and that Russia could not accept Ukraine as a “military threat to the lawful security interests of the Russian Federation,” Reuters reported, citing Russian news agencies.

The US hosts cancelled the meeting’s traditional group photo on Friday after several delegations objected to appearing alongside Lavrov.