Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov \u2018reaffirmed \u200breadiness\u2019 for a political \u200band diplomatic settlement to Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n
Published On 23 Jul 202623 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
The top United States and Russian diplomats have discussed the war in Ukraine on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in the Philippines.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday in Manila, with Russian media reporting that the meeting was just over half an hour long.<\/p>\n
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The sit-down came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had spoken with US envoys in a bid to revive stalled talks aimed at ending the years-long war.<\/p>\n
Lavrov \u201creaffirmed Russia\u2019s readiness for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict\u201d, a statement from Russia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, adding that the minister told Rubio that \u2060Moscow remained committed \u2060to proposals put forward by presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir \u2060Putin at their August 2025 meeting \u2060in Alaska.<\/p>\n
Lavrov also \u201cstressed that it was unacceptable to continue supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime\u201d, the ministry said. The minister condemned \u201ca destabilising policy by European countries, which are still seeking to inflict a \u2018strategic defeat\u2019 on Russia,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
The US State Department offered few details about the meeting, with a spokesperson only saying that Rubio and Lavrov \u201cdiscussed the US-Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war\u201d.<\/p>\n
The two were also expected to discuss the conflict in the Middle East, which has seen Moscow condemn Washington\u2019s strikes on its ally Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war in Ukraine, I think, has in many ways impeded the ability of Russia and the United States to find areas of agreement on other topics,\u201d Rubio told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we won\u2019t seek to find other areas of potential cooperation. But by the same token \u2026 we\u2019d like to see that war come to an end,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Rubio said the US remained open to playing a role in ending the conflict \u201cif that opportunity presents itself\u201d.<\/p>\n
For his part, Lavrov earlier indicated the meeting would \u201cbe useful in any case\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to ask questions and get answers,\u201d Lavrov said to reporters on Wednesday, adding that he would ask Rubio about the latest statements by Trump predicting that a settlement is getting close.<\/p>\n
Discussions aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine have been at a standstill, with US attention now focused on the Middle East and Moscow maintaining its demand that Kyiv cede territory.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Zelenskyy said in a post on X that he had \u201ca good, important conversation on how to reinvigorate diplomacy\u201d with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n
Rubio spoke briefly with Lavrov at a gala dinner on Tuesday, and the two participated in a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Trump has voiced support for Ukraine\u2019s campaign of long-range drone strikes targeting Russian energy infrastructure, saying it could \u201chelp bring about an end\u201d to the conflict.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has been escalating its drone strikes, hitting refineries, oil depots and cargo ships at sea, which has caused fuel shortages in Russia.<\/p>\n
In late June, a massive barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed at least 30 people in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov \u2018reaffirmed \u200breadiness\u2019 for a political \u200band diplomatic settlement to Russia-Ukraine war. Published On 23…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3191,704,30,82,1957,79,25,6,26,196,410],"class_list":["post-19984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-asia-pacific","tag-conflict","tag-europe","tag-news","tag-philippines","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}