Senior U.S. and Russian diplomats held a new round of talks aimed at seeking an end to Moscow’s more-than-four-year war against Ukraine, but both sides indicated that the meeting produced no breakthrough and offered little reason for optimism.

The July 23 meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took place as U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal remain stalled. The Trump administration has shifted attention toward the Iran war, while the Kremlin has shown no public sign of easing its maximalist demands in the conflict with Ukraine.

After the meeting, which lasted 35 minutes, Rubio described the discussions as “good” and “frank,” but said new proposals would be needed because earlier peace ideas had failed. He declined to provide details of the exchange.

“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 talks had produced any breakthrough, Rubio pushed back against 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.

Later, when RFE/RL asked Lavrov when Russia would stop the war, Lavrov appeared either to ignore the question or not to hear it.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Lavrov had expressed Moscow’s dissatisfaction with U.S. weapons supplies to Ukraine. The ministry said Lavrov also accused Ukraine’s European allies of pursuing “destabilizing policies” aimed at achieving a “strategic defeat” for Russia.

According to the ministry, Lavrov also raised the issue of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska.

The Kremlin has maintained that Trump and Putin reached a key understanding in Anchorage on ending the war in Ukraine. Rubio and other U.S. officials have repeatedly denied that such an agreement was reached.

“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.”

Rubio said any eventual peace agreement would likely require “new ideas and some new concepts.” He said Washington was ready to contribute proposals “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 especially optimistic.

The lack of progress keeps attention on the core disputes that have blocked previous diplomatic efforts: Russia’s territorial demands, Ukraine’s rejection of concessions, and the role of Western military support in Kyiv’s defense. Those issues remain central to any possible settlement because they involve both battlefield control and the security terms Ukraine says it needs to prevent renewed attacks.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces have fought Russian troops to a standstill, while Russian units continue to advance only slowly and at extremely high cost. Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign has disrupted Russian gasoline refineries, while Russia continues to attack Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles and drones.

Russia continues, among other demands, to insist on full control of the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine. Kyiv has rejected territorial concessions.

Rubio said Russia was losing “upwards of 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers a week.” He also said Ukraine had paid “a tremendous price,” citing civilian deaths and intensified strikes on Kyiv.

Both Russia and Ukraine have strong incentives to end the war, Rubio said, but the central obstacle remains finding terms that both sides can accept.

“That’s been the challenge: an end that both sides can accept,” he said.

Earlier Proposals Seen as No Longer Viable

Washington has been the largest single supplier of weapons and military equipment to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

That flow of weapons has slowed since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, although supplies continue to be routed through European allies, a process that has irritated Moscow.

Asked whether Lavrov had urged Washington to stop supplying arms to Ukraine, Rubio said U.S. policy had not changed. He said the United States continues to sell weapons through NATO mechanisms while also pursuing diplomatic efforts.

“We want the war to end,” Rubio said. “We’re prepared to play whatever positive role we can to end the war.”

He warned that any settlement would require broad negotiations and could not be achieved through a single meeting.

“That’s not going to happen at a press conference. That’s not going to happen in one meeting here in the Philippines,” he said.

Rubio said Trump remained focused on ending the conflict so that “people stop dying,” Ukraine could rebuild, and young Russian soldiers would no longer be killed.

“He thinks it’s a stupid war. He thinks it’s a senseless war,” Rubio said.

Asked by RFE/RL whether Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could meet soon, Rubio said U.S. officials remained in frequent contact with Kyiv and had met Ukrainian representatives more often than Russian officials.

Rubio also said he had not discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during separate talks, saying the two sides had “a lot of other stuff to talk about.”

By RFE/RL