Rubio Meets Russian Counterpart to Discuss Ukraine War

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on July 23 on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, Philippines.In their first face-to-face meeting this year, the two top diplomats discussed a range of issues, including Russo–American relations and the need to end the war in Ukraine.Also participating in the negotiations on the Russian side were Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko; director of the foreign policy planning department, Alexei Drobinin; and the president’s permanent representative to ASEAN, Yevgeny Zagaynov, Russian state news agency TASS reported.From Washington, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Alison Hooker and special presidential envoy Sergio Gore were alongside Rubio.The meeting was held at the request of the American delegation, according to comments from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, reported by TASS.Rubio and Lavrov last met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September 2025.“Met today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial,” Rubio said in a July 23 post on X.“We discussed the U.S.–Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia–Ukraine war,” he added in the brief post about the meeting.Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Rubio said U.S. President Donald Trump had made it clear that the United States was prepared to help facilitate the end of a “senseless war” if the opportunity arose, adding that Washington had conveyed that message to Moscow.However, he declined to give his own assessment of the Kremlin’s position during the Manila talks.“We had a good conversation, a frank conversation,” Rubio said of his meeting with his Russian counterpart.He said he would not go into specifics about what was discussed.“The United States, the president’s been clear that … we are prepared to play a constructive role in bringing about an ​end to a senseless war, and we’re ready to do that,” Rubio ​said.The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a July 23 statement that “during the discussion of the Ukrainian issue, Sergey Lavrov briefed his American counterpart on the real state of affairs along the line of contact and emphasized the unacceptability of further armament of the Kyiv regime and the generally destabilizing policies of European countries, which continue to seek a ‘strategic defeat’ for Russia.”The ministry added that Lavrov “reaffirmed Russia’s readiness for a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict,” and that Moscow remained committed to the “proposals put forward by the American side at the meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Anchorage, to which the Russian leader agreed.”The statement referred to the meeting in August 2025 between the two presidents in Alaska, which has been a source of debate between Rubio and Lavrov in recent times.Lavrov has in the past suggested the United States had used the talks as a “ploy to buy time to rearm the Kyiv ‌regime,” while Rybakov, the same day, accused Washington of departing from “understandings” reached last summer, Russian news agency Interfax reported on June 23.“Of course, this whole situation needs to be clarified. But the fact remains: US proposals were discussed in Alaska, and they were accepted by the Russian side,” Lavrov said on June 26, in response to comments by Rubio, to the effect that though there was a “proposal” made in Alaska, there was “no agreement.”Rubio added that “if there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war.”In addition to the Ukraine war, regional and international issues were discussed, including the situation in the Persian Gulf, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.The ministry added that both sides also welcomed the resumption of full contacts between Russia’s space agency Roscosmos and NASA, and discussed “normalizing the operating conditions of the diplomatic missions of Russia and the United States.”Reuters contributed to this report.