Trump Says It's Time for Somebody Else to Negotiate for Ukraine as Putin Pitches a Summit With Xi

Donald Trump said Monday he is ready to meet Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in China next month, and he had a pointed message for Kyiv. Defending his diesel deal with Moscow and his decision to waive new sanctions on Russia, he said: "Zelensky doesn't know what he's talking about. To be honest, I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine," AFP reported.

The stakes go well beyond diplomacy. Sanctions relief and the diesel deal are already shaping where Russian energy goes. A great-power bargain struck over Ukraine's head would redraw sanctions, energy flows and the bill Europe pays for its own security.

A summit about nukes, mostly

Trump framed any meeting as being mainly about weapons. "We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization," he said. He would do it "not so much for Ukraine, because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much." Pressed on the war, he said he would do "whatever I can do to end the war."

On the same day, six people, including young children, were killed when a Russian drone struck a park in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, authorities said.

What Putin wants from the room

According to the Wall Street Journal, Putin floated the three-way summit in an Oct. 9 phone call with Trump, hoping to broker an end to the war on terms that favor Moscow, with Volodymyr Zelensky absent. The same call produced a deal letting Moscow sell diesel on the global market. The likely venue is the APEC summit in Shenzhen on November 18 to 19, a gathering where China, Russia and the US are all members.

Nothing is scheduled. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the idea "was indeed raised" but that "no specific proposals or agreements were discussed or put forward by anyone, either regarding the meeting itself or the possible agenda." He added that "a final settlement is impossible without the participation of someone in Kyiv who is prepared to take responsibility," and said Russia appreciated continued US mediation. China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing had no information about a meeting.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Uzbekistan, said "there's been talks of a meeting. I don't know whether it's been finalized," adding that the president "is open to anything that he can do to help bring a war to an end." He also denied that Washington had suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine, contradicting Zelensky.

Kyiv's answer

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha drew a sharp line. A meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, the US and Russia "could help end the war sooner," he wrote on X, while one between Russia, China and the US "would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war." Putin, he said, is "not a global leader; he is a war criminal" and "has no place at the table with presidents Trump and Xi."

Putin, for his part, has repeatedly ruled out meeting Zelensky until a final deal is ready and has questioned his authority to sign one now that his five-year term has expired under martial law.

The energy fight underneath

The summit talk sits on top of a fight over energy. Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports, and on Oct. 18 he signed an executive order waiving new Russia sanctions from a bill introduced by the late Senator Lindsey Graham. He has told Ukraine to stop hitting Russian energy infrastructure, arguing the strikes push up global diesel prices.

The "energy ceasefire" Trump announced on Oct. 11 has not held. Russia kept striking, and Kyiv resumed its own strikes after a three-day pause. In one overnight barrage Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region and more than 200 drones across the country; Zelensky said more than 10 energy facilities were damaged and at least 550,000 households lost power. "Steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate," he said.

Kyiv has also accused Washington of ordering restrictions on Starshield, the military version of Starlink, which Trump denied. The last US-mediated peace talks were in February, before the US and Israel launched a war against Iran.

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