NEW YORK — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in New York on Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, as Washington continues efforts to explore a negotiated end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The meeting began behind closed doors, according to reports from the venue. The U.S. State Department had scheduled the talks for Wednesday morning. Reuters reported ahead of the meeting that Ukraine was expected to be a central issue, one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met President Donald Trump in New York.
Zelenskiy said after his meeting with Trump that Ukraine would be prepared for a reciprocal halt to strikes on energy infrastructure if Russia stopped attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities. No such agreement has been announced.
Before the Rubio-Lavrov meeting, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia remained open to peace talks but argued that conditions were not yet in place to move to negotiations. That is Moscow’s position; Kyiv has continued to call for negotiations under terms it considers acceptable and has rejected Russian demands that Zelenskiy travel to Moscow for direct talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Why it matters
UPDATE: After meeting Lavrov, Rubio said Russia and Ukraine had both expressed interest in a possible limited ceasefire covering grain and energy-related targets, while cautioning that even such a narrower arrangement would not be easy. Russia has not publicly agreed to the proposal; Lavrov separately argued at the Security Council against a temporary pause that he said Europe could use to rearm Ukraine.
Ukraine has said it is waiting for Russia’s response on a Black Sea maritime truce and has supported a reciprocal halt to strikes on energy infrastructure. These statements point to possible areas for narrower de-escalation, but no ceasefire agreement or broader peace breakthrough has been announced.
Sources: Reuters reporting published Sept. 23, 2026; U.S. State Department schedule; contemporaneous reporting from the U.N. General Assembly venue.