The U.S. State Department announced late Tuesday, September 31, that Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, will meet with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, on Wednesday morning in New York.

The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, at a time when the Russia-Ukraine war has continued in recent weeks with widespread drone and missile attacks by both sides on energy infrastructure and residential areas.

Since taking office in his second term, President Trump has emphasized that the Russia-Ukraine war—"which should never have been started"—has caused the deaths of countless people and must end immediately.