Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov arrives in New York for UN General Assembly, state media reports
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in New York to attend the ongoing U.N. General Assembly, Russian state media reported early on Sept. 24.
World leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, arrived for the week-long annual U.N. summit on Sept. 22. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not in attendance.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Lavrov on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 24, according to Rubio's schedule for the day.
The U.S. has intensified efforts to broker a peace deal to end Russia's war against Ukraine in recent months, with no success. U.S. President Donald Trump met Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15, but has since voiced discontent with the Russian leader for failing to cooperate in efforts to end the war.
Lavrov's flight to New York from Moscow took nearly 12 hours as the aircraft avoided flying over other countries before arriving in the U.S., Russian state media claimed.
Ukraine's allies have barred Russian aircraft from using their airspace. Canada and EU member states have banned Russian planes from flying over their own territory in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow first announced on Sept. 19 that Lavrov is set to meet Rubio on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, with no date set at the time.
Zelensky and Trump met on the sidelines of the global summit on Sept. 23.
The U.S. leader has previously called for Ukraine to make concessions to Russia, but following his meeting with Zelensky, he signaled that Ukraine may be able to return all of its territory as Moscow refuses to cease hostilities.
"After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform afterward.
The same day, Zelensky told reporters that Trump now trusts Kyiv more following dishonesty from Putin.
"Gradually, (Trump) realized that Putin was simply sharing some information that was far from the truth on the battlefield. Now he trusts me much more because the information that my intelligence has, that we share with our partners," Zelensky said at a press conference.
