No Breakthroughs or Optimism in Rubio-Lavrov Meeting on Ukraine War

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on July 23 to discuss finding an end to Russia's war on Ukraine, but the meeting yielded no new breakthroughs or cause for optimism. The 35-minute meeting was described by Rubio as "good" and "frank," but he indicated that fresh proposals would be needed after previous peace ideas failed.

Rubio stated that the United States is prepared to play a constructive role in ending what he called a "senseless war." When asked about any breakthroughs, Rubio dismissed expectations of rapid progress. Russia's Foreign Ministry reported that Lavrov expressed Moscow's unhappiness with U.S. weapons supplies to Ukraine and accused Ukraine's European allies of "destabilizing policies" seeking a "strategic defeat" for Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov conveyed that Moscow was not overly optimistic about the meeting. Rubio emphasized that both Russia and Ukraine have strong incentives to end the war, but the main challenge lies in finding terms acceptable to both sides. He cautioned that a settlement would require extensive negotiations rather than a single meeting, stating, "That's not going to happen in one meeting here in the Philippines."