Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in person in Malaysia for the second time, as relations between the United States and Russia begin to sour.

The two held a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday. Their meeting was the second time they’ve met, and it lasted about 50 minutes, according to Reuters.

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According to Russian media, Rubio said the two discussed a “new approach” to settling the issue of Ukraine, including proposals from Russia that hadn’t been voiced before.

“I think it’s a new and different approach. Again, I wouldn’t characterize it as something that guarantees a peace, but it’s a concept I’ll take back to the president today,” he told reporters after the meeting.

The secretary of state said the U.S. would “continue to engage” with Russia to end the War in Ukraine. He praised the progress made so far in bringing about a peace settlement, noting that no progress had been made under the previous administration.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that in addition to Ukraine, Rubio and Lavrov discussed Iran and Syria. The meeting appeared productive, with both parties confirming their mutual interest in finding peaceful solutions to current conflicts and restoring U.S.-Russian economic and humanitarian cooperation.

Rubio and Lavrov first met in Saudi Arabia in February when relations between the two countries were more amicable. They spoke by phone in May and June.

The meeting and positive rhetoric around it indicate that, although relations have deteriorated from the highs of previous months, President Donald Trump hasn’t completely reversed course.

Lavrov will travel to North Korea over the weekend at the invitation of Pyongyang.

Thursday’s meeting also came amid another blistering drone and missile attack from Moscow, one of the largest of the war, specifically targeting Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the attack involved 400 drones and 18 missiles, including eight ballistic missiles.

Videos on social media showed hits across the city. Among the confirmed targets were Kyivmetrobudo Industrial Complex, the Meridian Radio Plant, Kyiv Central Design Bureau of Valves Machine-building plant, and “Energa-2” Garage Cooperative.

CNN noted the drones took various routes into the city, signalling a possible change in tactics.

Over the past several weeks, Russia has continually broken its previous records of drone and missile strikes against Ukraine, hitting a new record on Tuesday night when it launched 728 drones and 13 missiles. The strike was well above the previous record made last week of around 550 drones and missiles. Tuesday’s strike was also the single largest drone and missile attack in history.

Russia can launch hundreds of Gerans per day due to its increasing manufacturing capabilities and the low cost of the drones. In contrast to its expensive missile arsenal, which cost millions per munition, its Gerans cost just $50,000 to $80,000 each, according to the New York Times.

Yasir Atalan, a data fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies, noted that “There has not been a single, uninterrupted three-day period without Shahed launches this year.”

Launches of Gerans escalated from 67 a week when Russia began manufacturing them in 2023 to over 1,000 per week in recent months.

While the strikes have degraded Ukraine’s industrial and military capabilities, it has helped sour relations with Washington. President Donald Trump has grown pessimistic about the chance of peace talks, offering on Tuesday some of his most pointed criticisms of Putin since taking office. He said shipments of defensive weapons to Ukraine would continue.

“We get a lot of bulls*** thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

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The Kremlin has remained stoic over Trump’s change in rhetoric. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Russia was “quite calm” about his recent comments.

“We expect to continue our dialogue with Washington and our line on repairing the rather broken bilateral relations,” he added.