Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday that further arms deliveries to Ukraine were “unacceptable”, according to a Russian foreign ministry statement issued after the two men met on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers’ gathering in Manila. Rubio, speaking to reporters after the half-hour encounter, said the United States sells weapons through the PURL initiative and that “there has been no change in our policy in this regard”. The exchange marked the first direct, high-level discussion of the Ukraine dossier between the two diplomats since September 2025.

Lavrov briefed Rubio on the situation along the line of contact and condemned what Moscow described as a destabilising policy by European countries still seeking to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. The Russian minister reaffirmed his country’s readiness for a political-diplomatic settlement of the conflict and, according to Moscow’s readout, stressed that Russia remained committed to proposals put forward by Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at their August 2025 meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. The Russian statement also noted that the two sides discussed the normalisation of conditions for their diplomatic missions and welcomed the resumption of full contacts between Roscosmos and NASA.

Rubio told reporters that Washington wanted a peace deal and that the war had “in many ways impeded the ability of Russia and the United States to find areas of agreement on other topics”. The US State Department said the two men had discussed the bilateral relationship and the need to end the war. The meeting took place as Washington’s diplomatic focus has shifted towards the conflict in the Middle East, where Moscow has condemned US strikes on its ally Iran. Shortly before the Lavrov-Rubio talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had spoken with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in a bid to “reinvigorate diplomacy”. President Trump has voiced support for Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, saying they could help bring about an end to the fighting.

Both sides agreed to continue contacts between their foreign ministries, including through participation in international organisations. No breakthrough on the core dispute over arms supplies was announced, but the meeting preserved a channel of communication at a moment when battlefield violence continues: Russian airstrikes killed three people in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, while Ukrainian attacks killed four in Russia and annexed Crimea, according to local authorities.