Russian and American top diplomats held a “frank exchange” as they met in Malaysia.
Moscow said, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had shared a “new idea” on Ukraine.
“I think it’s a new and a different approach,” Rubio told reporters after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as something that guarantees a peace, but it’s a concept that, you know, that I’ll take back to the president.” He didn’t elaborate.
Rubio added that President Donald Trump has been “disappointed and frustrated that there’s not been more flexibility on the Russian side” to bring about an end to the conflict.
The pair met hours after Moscow pummelled Kyiv for a second night in a row and as the UN said the number of victims from Russian attacks was at its highest level in three years.
After launching the barrage, which killed two people in the Ukrainian capital, Moscow denied peace talks with Kyiv were at a dead end.
US President Donald Trump, who forced the warring countries to open negotiations for the first time in three years.
earlier this week accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of talking “bullshit” on Ukraine, amid fading hopes for a breakthrough.
“A substantive and frank exchange of views took place on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine,” Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement on the meeting.
Rubio told reporters Lavrov had floated something “new” on the conflict, but did not share details of the proposal.
“It’s not a new approach. It’s a new idea or a new concept that I’ll take back to the president to discuss,” he said.
He added that it was not something that “automatically leads to peace, but it could potentially open the door to a path.”
