Russia on Thursday warned Washington against making what it described as "unacceptable" arms deliveries to Ukraine during talks between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Manila.
Lavrov told the U.S. secretary of state "it was unacceptable to continue supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In their meeting held on the sidelines of a summit of Southeast Asian foreign ministers, Moscow's top diplomat also condemned what he called "a destabilizing policy by European countries, which are still seeking to inflict a 'strategic defeat' on Russia."
The first sit-down between Lavrov and Rubio since September 2025 comes as Washington's focus has switched from mediating in Ukraine to dealing with war in the Middle East.
The U.S. State Department said in a brief statement that Rubio and Lavrov – who made no statements to the press ahead of their meeting – had discussed the "U.S.-Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war."
Lavrov, according to Moscow's statement, reiterated that the Russian side was ready for a "political-diplomatic resolution to the conflict."
Both top diplomats are in the Philippines for meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
They were also expected to discuss the conflict in the Middle East, which has seen Moscow condemn Washington's strikes on its ally Iran.
Rubio spoke briefly with Lavrov at a gala dinner Tuesday and the two participated in an ASEAN meeting Thursday.
"The war in Ukraine, I think, has in many ways impeded the ability of Russia and the United States to find areas of agreement on other topics," Rubio told reporters Wednesday.
"That doesn't mean we won't seek to find other areas of potential cooperation.
"But by the same token ... we'd like to see that war come to an end," he said.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had spoken with U.S. envoys in a bid to revive stalled talks aimed at ending the yearslong war.
"I just spoke with President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. It was a good, important conversation on how to reinvigorate diplomacy and bring peace closer," Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced support for Ukraine's campaign of long-range drone strikes targeting Russian energy infrastructure, saying it could "help bring about an end" to the conflict.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian strikes killed three people, including a child, and wounded eight in Russia and in Moscow-annexed Crimea Thursday, local authorities said.
In their fifth year of war, Moscow and Kyiv have escalated airstrikes deep behind each other's lines, driving the civilian toll to its highest since 2022, while fighting on the front has remained at a standstill.
On the outskirts of Voronezh, 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Moscow, a "3-year-old boy died" in a fire that broke out at his home after a drone crashed on it, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram.
The boy's parents sustained "various wounds," he said, adding that a young man had also been wounded in a separate drone attack in the same area.
In Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, one man was killed and another wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, regional authorities said in a statement on Telegram.
In Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, a Ukrainian attack killed one person and wounded four others, including two children, Moscow-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said.
U.S.-led talks on resolving the conflict have stalled since Washington's attention turned to the Middle East, while Russia sticks to its hardline demand that Ukraine cede territory.
