The US government has formally invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G-20 leaders' summit to be held in mid-December in Miami, under the US presidency. An olive branch extended by Donald Trump, who has been seeking to gradually normalize relations between both countries since his return to power, which have been strained since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. They already met in the summer of 2025 in Alaska, but Washington even speculates the possibility of Miami hosting a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We have invited President Putin to the G-20. We believe it is an opportunity for him to meet not only with the president but also with other world leaders. We hope that he accepts this invitation. There is an opportunity in December, if it happens," said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday after meeting in person with the veteran Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.
The decision will not sit well with European countries. On August 31 of this year, at the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting held in Asheville, North Carolina, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made a surprise appearance, at least for most attendees. After several years of absence, he took a seat at the table and had a private meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the summit's host. Now, the White House is taking a more aggressive and controversial step.
Donald Trump prides himself on being pragmatic. He welcomed the new Syrian president to Washington, who was once an enemy of the US and a member of ISIS. He will meet with Xi Jinping tomorrow at the White House. And on Tuesday, he even posed smiling with Delcy Rodríguez, who until recently was on his government's sanctions list. Putin was never formally expelled from the G-20, as it would require a unanimity that does not exist. But he has not attended a meeting of this group in person since 2019, and has not participated since the Ukrainian invasion, having used video conferencing during the Covid era.
The invitation to the minister in August was already a radical departure from previous US policy. In April 2022, then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other Western officials had walked out of a G-20 meeting in Washington in protest when Siluanov, participating virtually, took the floor. The European Union now describes the Russian presence as inappropriate, stating that it was not the time to normalize relations with Russia while Moscow continued to bombard Ukraine. From North Carolina, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil was particularly clear, denouncing the reception of the Russian minister as "quite worrying." The Russian was excluded from the family photo, but the taboo was already broken.
Trump is indifferent to these criticisms and arguments. He believes he has a special relationship with Putin, that the Russian leader respects and listens to him, and that his mediation can achieve what no one else has in the past four and a half years. And that he has an opportunity to make history. If he boasts of having already ended eight wars in 18 months, nothing would make him happier than truly contributing this time to ending the killings in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian side is understandably skeptical. But at the same time, they do not close the door. Zelensky, who also met with Trump on the sidelines of the UN on Tuesday, said on September 12 in an interview with Deutsche Welle that he would be willing to meet with Putin in Miami. "Yes, of course. We have to go. We have to meet, talk, and make decisions. It's not about words (...) only the result matters." The Kremlin then responded evasively. Its spokesperson Dmitry Peskov simply said, "We still don't know if we will go to Miami," and reiterated Putin's demand that Zelensky travel to Russia to negotiate.
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Zelensky once again showed his willingness: "Not everything is forgiven... But this is a signal," he said when asked about the real possibilities of a direct meeting. "I am willing to meet with Putin at any time (...) He is not winning, and that is a problem for him: he has to show it to his society. It's not about us, nor the Americans, nor the Ukrainians; he does not respect anyone. His concern is the Russian people, his internal society, and the pressure. He only fears his nation," he concluded.
In his speech on Wednesday, the Ukrainian urged world leaders to continue "choking off Russia's income" to weaken its military capabilities. "Russia's income must remain a target," he asked the Assembly. "When someone gives more money to Russia through trade, they give more time to this war. That is precisely why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor," he continued.
He also warned that the war is rapidly changing with technology. "As early as next year, there is already a real possibility that AI, not people, will decide what happens on the battlefield. That is why we need peace before reaching that point."
Russia, as usual, will have its right of reply on Saturday before the assembly. There will be no major leaders left in the city, but that is beside the point. Lavrov, before the Security Council on Wednesday, reiterated with the usual cynicism that his country is willing to negotiate for a "lasting peace," but will not "stop" the war because that would only give Ukraine and its allies more time to acquire more weapons and ammunition.
"For the first time in Russia's history, we now hear that its pride, its oil industry, is running out of fuel," Zelensky said, responding in his own way to Trump's requests not to attack refineries and fuel facilities. "Our goal is to diminish Russia's ability to finance this war, to prolong it, to make it more brutal and destructive. Russia's finances and production are what must be stopped if Putin is to be stopped," the president continued. "Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us, but in response, we will have no choice but to make it harsh for Russia as well," he concluded.