US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Wednesday morning on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the US State Department said Tuesday.
The meeting comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to address the General Assembly on the same day.
Earlier Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was prepared to stop targeting Russian energy facilities if Moscow agreed to take a similar step.
He said, however, that he was not aware of Moscow’s position on the proposal, expressing hope that “the American side can find a way” to push Russia toward some form of negotiations.
Zelenskyy said Washington and Kyiv want to end the war with Russia before winter, following what he described as a “positive” meeting with US President Donald Trump.
“Had a positive and productive meeting with President Donald J. Trump at the UN General Assembly,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “The United States and Ukraine want to end this senseless Russian war before winter.”
The war has continued since Russia launched its full-scale military operation against Ukraine in February 2022, while US-led efforts to end the conflict have stalled in recent months.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged increasingly intense long-range strikes for months, targeting a growing number of civilian sites, including factories, warehouses, energy facilities and ports, as well as vessels in the Black Sea.
Source: (AFP)
