MANILA -- The top US and Russian diplomats met in a new push to find an end to Moscow's more-than-4-year-old war on Ukraine, but both sides signaled no new breakthroughs nor cause for optimism.The July 23 meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came with US-efforts to broker a peace deal frozen as the Trump administration shifts focus to the Iran war, and the Kremlin shows no sign of softening its maximalist war demands.Following their meeting, which lasted just 35 minutes, Rubio described the talks as "good" and "frank" but said fresh proposals would be needed after previous peace ideas failed. He declined to disclose details."The United States...is prepared to play a constructive role in bringing about an end to a senseless war," Rubio said when pressed by RFE/RL.Asked whether the meeting had produced any breakthrough, Rubio dismissed expectations of rapid progress."You think we settled the war in Ukraine in our 30 minutes here in Asia? That's not the way it works," he said.Asked later by RFE/RL about when Russia will stop the war, Lavrov appeared to either ignore the question or not hear it.
In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Lavrov expressed Moscow's unhappiness with US weapons supplies to Ukraine, and he accused Ukraine's European allies of "destabilizing policies" that seek a "strategic defeat" for Russia.Lavrov also raised the issue of a meeting held by presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, the ministry said.The Kremlin has insisted that, in Anchorage, Trump and Putin reached a key agreement on ending the Ukraine war. Rubio and other US officials have repeatedly denied that.“We'll have to find new suggestions and new ideas," Rubio told reporters. "Certainly that one was not acceptable to Ukraine at the time, and I don't think it's acceptable to them now either. In fact, it's probably less acceptable to them.”Any eventual peace agreement would likely require "new ideas and some new concepts," Rubio said. Washington was prepared to contribute proposals, he said, "if the opportunity presents itself and the conditions are right."Asked about the Lavrov-Rubio meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was not overly optimistic.
