The top Russian and US diplomats discussed the Ukraine conflict and bilateral ties<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held closed-door talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
\nThe meeting lasted for just under an hour and revolved primarily around the Ukraine conflict, according to the tight-lipped statements made after the conversation by the two sides.\u00a0
\n\u201cThe Secretary reiterated President [Donald] Trump\u2019s call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war,\u201d the US Department of State said in a statement.\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe Russian Foreign Ministry offered a slightly more detailed readout of the talks, stating that Lavrov and Rubio had agreed to \u201ccontinue constructive dialogue between the Russian and US foreign ministries\u201d as well as reaffirmed the importance of the \u201cmomentum\u201d generated by the Alaska summit for \u201cnormalizing bilateral relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Russia is a bear, not a \u2018paper tiger\u2019 \u2013 Kremlin to Trump<\/p>\n
\u201cLavrov emphasized [Moscow\u2019s] readiness to adhere to the line established by the Russian and US leaders in Alaska, including coordinating efforts with the US side to address the root causes of the Ukraine conflict,\u201d the ministry said in a statement, adding that the top diplomat called out the \u201cunacceptable schemes promoted by Kiev and some European capitals aimed at prolonging the conflict\u201d during the talks.
\nThe meeting comes on the heels of a sharp change in Trump\u2019s rhetoric on the conflict following a meeting with Ukraine\u2019s Vladimir Zelensky earlier this week. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, the US president said he believes Kiev is \u201cin a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back,\u201d with enough support from the EU and NATO. He also branded Russia a \u201cpaper tiger,\u201d arguing that it had failed to defeat Ukraine and claiming that Moscow was \u201cin big economic trouble.\u201d\u00a0
\nMoscow appeared to brush off the hostile rhetoric, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov jokingly suggesting that Russia was a \u201creal bear\u201d rather than a \u201cpaper tiger.\u201d While the country\u2019s economy has been facing certain \u201cproblems,\u201d it has largely adapted to the ongoing conflict and withstood the unprecedented Western sanctions, Peskov told Russian business daily RBK on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The top Russian and US diplomats discussed the Ukraine conflict and bilateral ties Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held closed-door talks on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t