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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Washington against continuing arms sales to Kyiv during a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Philippines on Thursday, the Kremlin said.
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During the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) foreign ministers’ summit, Lavrov told Rubio that it would be “unacceptable” for the US to continue arming Ukraine, according to a statement released by Russia’s foreign ministry.
“Lavrov briefed his American counterpart on the actual situation along the front line and emphasised that it would be unacceptable to further arm the Kyiv regime,” the statement reads.
Lavrov also reaffirmed Moscow’s “readiness for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict,” it said, adding that the two parties had also discussed the situation in the Persian Gulf, where the US remains locked in conflict with Iran.
US President Donald Trump has signalled his support for Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia, which have sought to target Russian energy infrastructure.
“It’s an escalation, but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end,” Trump said of Ukraine’s strategy during the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this month.
Four killed in Ukrainian strikes on Russia and annexed Crimea
Russian authorities have said that Ukrainian strikes killed four people overnight into across Russia and Russian-occupied territories.
In a post on Telegram, Sergey Aksyonov, the head of Russian-occupied Crimea, reported that two people were killed and five were injured following strikes on the region, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
In the western Russian region of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, the local governor, said a three-year-old boy also died after a drone crashed into a house and caused a fire.
Alexander Shuvaev, the acting governor of Belgorod, which is also in western Russia, said one person was killed following an attack on the Shebekinsky district.
Ukraine’s air force said Russian forces had launched a ballistic missile, five cruise missiles, and 168 attack drones at Ukraine overnight.
It said local air defences had “shot down or neutralised” two Kh-59/69 cruise missiles and 154 drones.