On the 15th (local time), the U.S. Department of State announced that Secretary of State Mark Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a phone call to discuss the issue of peace negotiations for Ukraine.
In a statement released that day under the name of spokesperson Tammy Bruce, the State Department said, "Secretary Rubio and Minister Lavrov discussed the next steps following the recent high-level talks held in Saudi Arabia and agreed to continue cooperating to restore communication between the two countries."
The United States and Russia held negotiations on a peace plan for Ukraine on the 18th of last month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. At that time, Secretary Rubio and Minister Lavrov led their respective negotiation teams.
Subsequently, although U.S. President Donald Trump had a heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, the United States and Ukraine agreed on the 11th to pursue a 30-day ceasefire through high-level talks. However, Russia, while in principle agreeing to the ceasefire plan, has set various conditions.
The U.S. Department of State explained that during the call, Secretary Rubio emphasized that the U.S. conducted airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen and stressed that attacks by the Houthis on U.S. warships and commercial vessels in the Red Sea will not be tolerated.
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