Sawt Falasteen - Russia says holds 'frank exchange' with US on Ukraine war

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."

Russia did not comment on the idea.

The US diplomat said he had also conveyed Trump's anger that the more than three-year war, triggered by Russia's 2022 invasion, was still ongoing.

"I echoed what the president said, both a disappointment and frustration at the lack of progress," Rubio said.

Trump has been increasingly critical of Putin, whom he used to talk about with admiration, while also voicing frustration at Kyiv, with no end in sight to Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

- 'Shards flying at me' -

Ukraine said Thursday that two people -- a 22-year-old policewoman on duty at a metro station and a 68-year-old woman -- were killed in the latest assault on the capital.

The Kremlin denied peace talks were stalling and said, hours after the attack, it was still open to talks with Kyiv, saying it was waiting for "signals" from Ukraine that it would attend talks.

Moscow has for months refused a ceasefire in Ukraine and two rounds of talks with Kyiv have led to no breakthrough.

In Kyiv, AFP journalists heard loud detonations reverberating over the city throughout the night and saw flashes from air defence systems illuminating the sky during the attack.

Karyna Wolf, a Kyiv resident, told AFP she could hear the buzzing of a drone grow louder until a large explosion rocked the flats just two floors above in her building.

"I immediately jumped away from the wall, away from the windows and ran into the hallway, and in those seconds there was an explosion. There was a lot of glass shards flying at me," the 25-year-old said.

As Rubio and Lavrov met in Kuala Lumpur, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was in Rome, where he called for more political and military support from allies at a conference in the Italian capital.

Zelensky said Putin wanted "our people to suffer, to flee Ukraine and for homes, schools, for life itself to be destroyed", urging Western leaders to boost defence investments.

- 'Terror' -

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 415 drones and missiles at the country while Zelensky urged allies to roll out fresh sanctions on Moscow faster.

The fresh onslaught came just one night after Russia fired a record number of 741 long-range drones and missiles.

Officials said the night-time attack on Kyiv also wounded 22 people.

Police identified one victim as Maria Dziumaga, a "kind, cheerful, sincere, responsible, and dedicated police officer" who had joined in 2023.

AFP reporters saw firefighters putting out flames in a damaged residential building and people emerging from shelters, carrying sleeping mats and pets after the air alert was lifted.

Russia's defence ministry said the strike had targeted "military-industrial enterprises" in Kyiv as well as airbases.

The UN announced Thursday that recent attacks on Ukrainian cities had led to a three-year high in the number of civilians killed or wounded in June.

"Civilians across Ukraine are facing levels of suffering we have not seen in over three years," said Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

The UN verified at least 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded during the month -- the highest combined toll since April 2022.

S.Abdullah--SF-PST