Lavrov on tomorrow’s meeting with US Secretary of State Rubio:
“As for President Trump’s predictions about the war in Ukraine moving closer to a settlement, I’ll ask Marco Rubio about that tomorrow.”
Lavrov will meet with Rubio for the first time in nearly a year.
The meeting is reportedly scheduled for Thursday, July 23, in Manila, where the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Forum is taking place.
The face-to-face talks between Lavrov and Rubio – the first since last September – will, according to Lavrov, focus on Ukraine and the Anchorage agreements, which, as the Kremlin claimed, were reached by Putin and President Trump.
“We are proceeding on the assumption that, at least for now, our American colleagues have not rejected their own proposals, which were put forward and are now well known to everyone,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov will likely bring a tougher stance from the Kremlin to the talks with Rubio; according to Bloomberg sources in Moscow, the Kremlin has decided to abandon the idea of a “territorial swap” with Kyiv.
According to the agency’s sources, Putin no longer intends to relinquish parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which he now plans to retain as a buffer zone.
According to Bloomberg sources, Putin still believes he will capture the entire Donbas by the end of this year and does not plan to engage in negotiations until that happens.
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— @Gerashchenko_en Jul 22, 2026
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