US ready for meetings with Russian officials to resolve Ukraine conflict — Rubio

The Washington administration is ready to hold meetings with Russian officials, provided such contacts will contribute to resolving the Ukraine conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said as he took journalists' questions before traveling to Israel, Report informs via TASS.

"We'd still like to meet with Russians," he said.

"I had a good call with [Russian] Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov and we'll follow up on that," the top US diplomat added.

"We will always be interested in engaging if there is an opportunity to achieve peace," Rubio emphasized.

Commenting on the latest US sanctions on Russia's largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, the US secretary of state said: "I think the president has said repeatedly for a number of months now that at some point he will have to do something if we don't make progress on the peace deal. Today was the day he decided to do something."