Ukraine absent from Atlanta talks as US-Russia ties appear to partially thaw
European diplomats refused to stand for an official photograph with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Atlanta, and the American hosts cancelled the planned picture. Two officials confirmed to the BBC that the so-called family photo, scheduled for Friday morning, had been scrapped.
Such photos usually include representatives from all the nations in attendance. The meeting gathers top diplomats from the world’s biggest economies and is being hosted in Atlanta by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Lavrov is present at the meeting, as is British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, and a diplomatic source confirmed the UK was among the countries that refused to participate in the picture. One British official said: “The UK has a longstanding policy not to have direct, bilateral engagement with Russian ministers since the invasion of Ukraine and we are not about to change that”.
A US official said the photo was cancelled “after it became clear some of the delegations were unwilling to participate in a joint photo”. “Rather than allow a ceremonial photo opportunity to become a diplomatic distraction, the US decided to forgo the photo and keep the focus on the substantive discussions,” the official said.
Ukraine was not invited to the meeting. The country is not a G20 member but has been invited to similar gatherings in recent years.
Relations between Ukraine and the United States have been particularly tense this month, with a diplomatic standoff between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump over Kyiv’s strikes on oil infrastructure within Russia.
US relations with Russia, by contrast, appear to have partially thawed in recent weeks. Trump waived some sanctions and agreed a deal to import Russian diesel for the American market, and he said his decision to suspend several Russian sanctions is an effort to keep Moscow at the negotiating table in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The moves come as Trump attempts to lower fuel prices in the US ahead of mid-term elections at the start of November, after months spent grappling with the political consequences of the Iran war.
Ukraine and its European allies have heavily criticized Trump’s deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky called it “a gift” to Putin that amounts to “an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged”.
Putin has said Russia, which introduced a ban on diesel exports earlier this year, is willing to supply both the US and global markets with oil and petroleum products.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and currently controls approximately a fifth of Ukrainian territory. Moscow has intensified its deadly missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in recent weeks.