Russia says warned Rubio against delivering arms to Ukraine

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila on July 23, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / POOL / AFP)

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Russia warned the United States on Thursday against making “unacceptable” arms deliveries to Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

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Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “stressed that it was unacceptable to continue supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime” in a meeting with his US counterpart Marco Rubio in Manila, it said.

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Lavrov condemned “a destabilising policy by European countries, which are still seeking to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia,” in their meeting held on the sidelines of an Asian summit.

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He repeated that the Russian side was ready for a “political-diplomatic resolution to the the conflict”, according to the foreign ministry.

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The encounter — the first between Lavrov and Rubio since September 2025 — comes at a time that Washington’s focus has switched from mediating in Ukraine to dealing with war in the Middle East.

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AFP

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