Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he is ready to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He made the remarks in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Sunday.
Experts consider the Russia-Ukraine war to be the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. However, Lavrov said that Russia will not compromise on its main conditions in any possible agreement on the Ukraine war.
US President Donald Trump has been trying to end the war since taking office in January. But his efforts have not made much progress so far. In this situation, Trump abruptly canceled a previously scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest last month.
Lavrov spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio by phone a few days before the meeting. Immediately after this conversation, Washington announced the cancellation of the Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest. Then, last Wednesday, Lavrov was not seen at the Russian Security Council meeting held in the Kremlin. The meeting was chaired by Putin.
Lavrov’s absence from that important meeting sparked rumors in the Western media. It is said that Putin may have removed Lavrov from his position as Foreign Minister. Because he failed to organize the Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest. Apart from that, Lavrov has not been seen in public for a few days.
However, last Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that these rumors in the Western media were not true and said that Lavrov remains in his post. In such a context, Lavrov gave an interview to RIA Novosti on Sunday.
Ready for direct meeting’
In this interview, Lavrov said, ‘US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and I understand the need to maintain regular contact.’ The Russian diplomat, who has served as Putin’s foreign minister since 2004, said, ‘Direct meetings are important for advancing Ukraine and bilateral issues. For this reason, we maintain telephone contact and, if necessary, I am ready to meet with him directly.’
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine about four years ago. Since then, Russian troops have occupied about 19 percent of Ukraine’s territory. Moscow claims that these territories have legally become Russia’s. But Ukraine and its Western allies have repeatedly said that they will never officially accept Moscow’s claim.
Alaska agreement
Lavrov said that Putin and Trump reached an ‘agreement’ at a meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15. The agreement was based on Putin’s official demand in June 2024 and the opinion of Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
Lavrov said, “We are waiting for confirmation from the US side whether the Anchorage “agreements” are effective.”
The 75-year-old diplomat claimed that from the US perspective, “no one questions the territorial integrity of Russia and the decision of the residents of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya to reunite with their “historical homeland.”
Russians refer to Novorossiya as a vast territory in southeastern Ukraine that was part of the Tsarist empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. Novorossiya also refers to the movement of the residents of these regions to join the Russian mainland.
Lavrov told RIA Novosti that Washington had informed Moscow through diplomatic channels that it was reviewing Putin’s proposal to maintain obligations under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which expires in February 2026.
