Zelensky says he is ready to meet Putin at G20 summit in Miami if Putin attends
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with DW that he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 leaders' summit in Miami in December, provided Putin attends. The Kremlin, for its part, said a trilateral meeting between the United States, Russia and Ukraine could take place in the near future. Zelensky framed the meeting as a question of results rather than words and said Ukraine is in a strong negotiating position.
Key points
- Zelensky said in a DW interview he is ready to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Miami if Putin attends.
- It would be the first in-person meeting between Zelensky and Putin since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
- Zelensky told Witkoff and Kushner Kyiv is ready to return to three-party talks with the United States on ending the war.
- Zelensky said the first step toward negotiations could be a ceasefire on energy and grain, and that the label given to any halt in hostilities does not matter to Ukraine.
- Zelensky said Ukraine has a strong negotiating position because Russia is losing more than 30,000 personnel a month and paying a high price for slow battlefield advances.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects a US–Russia–Ukraine trilateral meeting could happen in the near future, with no current agreements on a Putin–Trump meeting in China.
- The G20 summit is scheduled for 14–15 December 2026 at the Trump National Doral Miami golf complex, chaired by US President Donald Trump; Russia has not sent its president to a G20 since 2019.
Why it matters
A Zelensky–Putin meeting would be the first direct contact between the two leaders since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and would mark a significant step in any US-mediated push to end the war. Zelensky's readiness, combined with the Kremlin's signal of openness to a US–Russia–Ukraine trilateral, points to possible momentum in the diplomatic process. At the same time, Russia's record of skipping G20 summits since 2019 makes Putin's actual attendance far from certain.
What happened
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with DW that he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 leaders' summit in Miami in December, on the condition that Putin attends. He framed any such meeting as one where only the result matters, not the words exchanged, and said Ukraine's negotiating position is strong because Russia is losing more than 30,000 personnel a month. After talks in Kyiv with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Zelensky said Kyiv is ready to return to three-party talks with the United States on ending the war. Zelensky added that the first step toward negotiations could be a ceasefire on energy and grain, and that the name given to a halt in hostilities does not matter to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects a trilateral meeting of Washington, Moscow and Kyiv could take place in the near future, while there are no current agreements on a Putin–Trump meeting in China. The Kremlin had not announced whether Putin would attend the G20.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian outlets led with Zelensky's readiness to meet Putin at the G20, repeatedly quoting his line "Yes, of course. We have to come. We have to meet, talk and make a decision." Coverage framed Kyiv's stance as coming from a position of strength on the battlefield, and stressed Zelensky's caveat that he does not expect negotiations to resume before Russia's scheduled September 20 parliamentary "elections." Ukrainian sources also folded in context from Zelensky's earlier CBC interview about Putin's maximalist aims and the human cost of attempting to defeat Russia militarily.
Where reporting differs
Sources differ on how precisely the G20 summit is identified: some refer simply to a December G20 summit in Miami, while others specify 14–15 December 2026 at the Trump National Doral Miami golf complex chaired by US President Trump. Sources also note the Kremlin had not announced whether Putin would attend, alongside Trump's earlier statement that Putin's participation would be "useful" but doubted.
Background
The DW interview was conducted on Friday at a Canadian military base in North Bay, according to Ukrinform. In a separate interview with Canada's CBC, Zelensky said Putin wants to seize all of Ukraine and would do so without Ukrainian strength and international security guarantees, and that defeating Russia on the battlefield would carry very high human costs. Russia has not sent its president to a G20 in person since 2019, citing COVID-19, the invasion of Ukraine and an ICC arrest warrant for Putin; in August the US invited Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to a G20 finance meeting in North Carolina. In November 2022 the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, called on G20 states to expel Russia from the group, as it was expelled from the G8 in 2014 — a step Trump has said was a mistake. Head of the Office of the President Budanov has called a ceasefire along the actual front line without Ukraine's legal recognition of the occupation the most realistic option, saying Kyiv is ready to cease fire at any moment. Politico reported on 11 August that US politicians currently see no progress in talks on Ukraine.