Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is ready to implement unspecified agreements to end the war with Ukraine that were reached during talks with the United States in Anchorage, Alaska. He insisted Russia's conscience is "clear" and used the Russian expression "a boy said — a boy did." According to Lavrov, the US approach has now changed, judging by a recent quote from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Lavrov made the comments in response to Rubio's statement that the agreements reached at the Alaska summit had failed. The Russian foreign minister said it is necessary to determine "who exactly failed."
Rubio, after meeting Lavrov in Manila on July 23, called previous attempts to end the war unsuccessful. He said Kyiv had rejected proposals that "were unacceptable to Ukraine at the time" and that those terms are now "probably even less acceptable." Rubio called for new ideas and proposals acceptable to both sides. He did not specify which proposals he meant but mentioned reports of a so-called "3+2" plan and territorial division, which Ukrainians rejected.
Lavrov, for his part, claimed the Anchorage summit produced agreed compromise positions. He said the US assured that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would take steps to end the war, steps allegedly proposed by Donald Trump. Lavrov's statement did not clarify what compromises or steps were involved. He called Ukraine's rejection of these proposals "arrogant and contemptuous" and linked it to Washington "to a large extent" continuing to supply weapons to Kyiv.
Following the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska, Russian authorities and propagandists have repeatedly invoked the "spirit of Anchorage" — the need to end the war in accordance with unspecified agreements. The details of these accords have not been made public, and the US side did not produce a transcript of the meeting.
On the same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Rubio's statements, said Russia expects new proposals from the US. He described American negotiators as "sincere" in their desire to find options acceptable to all. "The option they proposed was accepted by us but not accepted by the Ukrainians. And the Americans could not persuade the Ukrainians because they could not overcome the Ukrainians, who are being egged on by the Europeans," Peskov claimed. He stressed that Moscow is open to discussions but that new proposals must be "acceptable to us first and foremost." In the absence of peace prospects, Peskov said, Russia will continue its military operation "until complete victory."