State Secretary Marco Rubio said on Thursday that he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov “new” and “different” approaches had exchanged to end the almost three and a half year war in Ukraine as the frustration of President Donald Trump.
“I think it is a new and different approach,” Rubio told reporters after his almost an hour -long meeting with Lavrov on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) conference in Malaysia. “I would not characterize it as something that guarantees a peace, but it is a concept that I will take back to the president.”
Rubio has not shared any details about what this new approach entails, but as Trump comes the sanctions of “biting” against Russia and increasing military aid to Ukraine, and this week also claimed that he did not sign on the limited weapons of the Pentagon to Kyiv who pushed through earlier this month.
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State Secretary Marco Rubio (L) meets the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting of the Foreign Ministers in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty images)
The secretary said that he also communicated to Lavrov that Trump is “disappointed and frustrated that there has been no more flexibility on the Russian side” to pursue a legitimate end to his war in Ukraine.
Rubio was questioned about Trump’s several calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the minimal impact it had on the war of the Kremlin Chief, because Russian attacks have only been escalated and become more intense.
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President Donald Trump is shown to be met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the first day of the G20 top in Osaka, Japan on 28 June 2019 during Trump’s first term. (Kremlin Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty images)
“There have been some humanitarian exchanges, of course … our goal here is to end this war,” he said, adding that he believes that Trump “deserves enormous credit” for keeping his predecessor and other world leaders that did not.
Rubio said that he would not characterize the discussion or Lavrov’s answer, but said: “We must see a route map about how this conflict can be concluded. And then we shared some ideas about what that could look like.”
The American State Secretary Marco Rubio participates in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers Meeting and related meetings in the Congress Center in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty images)
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“We remain involved where we see opportunities to make a difference,” he added.
The meeting was the second time that Rubio and Lavrov had met since the secretary started the top track.
