Putin proposes Trump–Xi trilateral on Ukraine; Peskov says no agenda yet
The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed, during a 9 October phone call with US President Donald Trump, a trilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the war in Ukraine, on terms favourable to Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to the WSJ on 18 October that discussions of a possible meeting are ongoing but said there is no clear understanding yet of its form or agenda, though all three sides acknowledge the hypothetical possibility. The Kremlin suggested holding the meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit scheduled for 18–19 November in Shenzhen, China. The proposed format would not include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the WSJ assessed such a summit would be unprecedented and alarming for European capitals.
Key points
- Putin raised the trilateral US-Russia-China summit idea during a 9 October phone call with Trump, with the goal of ending the war on terms favourable to Russia.
- Peskov told the WSJ on 18 October that talks are ongoing but acknowledged there is no clear understanding of the meeting or its agenda yet.
- The Kremlin proposed using the APEC summit in Shenzhen on 18–19 November as the venue for the meeting.
- A senior US official said Trump has not agreed to the meeting but could be open to it, given his campaign promise to end the war.
- The proposed format excludes Zelensky; the WSJ assessed such a summit would be unprecedented and would alarm European capitals.
- During the same 9 October call, the US and Russia reached an agreement on US purchases of Russian diesel fuel and its sale on the world market.
- Both the White House and the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the story.
Why it matters
If realised, the proposal would create an unprecedented US-Russia-China framework for negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine without Ukrainian representation, raising the conflict to the level of great-power diplomacy. Putin's inclusion of Beijing suggests an attempt to reshape the war from a bilateral Ukraine-Russia matter into a multipower settlement, one that would sideline both Kyiv and European capitals. Trump has not committed, leaving him leverage over the eventual format. The same call produced a US-Russian agreement on Russian diesel purchases, signalling a parallel warming of US-Russia economic ties. Earlier, similar trilateral proposals have been floated, suggesting this is part of a continuing Russian strategy rather than a one-off manoeuvre.
What happened
The Wall Street Journal reported that on 9 October, during a phone call with US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the idea of a trilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Speaking to the WSJ on 18 October, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that discussions about a possible meeting are ongoing, though he said there is no clear understanding yet of the form of any meeting or its agenda, and that all three sides acknowledge only the hypothetical possibility of holding it. The Kremlin proposed holding the meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit scheduled for 18–19 November in Shenzhen, China. Russian officials conveyed the idea to Beijing through diplomatic channels, and the Chinese side indicated it would not object if Trump agreed to join. A senior US official told the WSJ that Trump has not yet agreed to attend but could be open to the idea given his desire to fulfil his campaign promise to end the war. The White House declined to comment and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The proposed format would not include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; the WSJ assessed that such a summit would be unprecedented and would cause concern in European capitals. During the same 9 October call, the US and Russia also reached an agreement for the United States to purchase Russian diesel fuel and facilitate its sale on the world market.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian outlets frame Putin's proposal as an attempt to negotiate an end to the war on terms favourable to Russia while excluding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from the table. Several Ukrainian headlines highlight Peskov's confirmation while emphasising the meeting's hypothetical, agenda-less status, treating it as a Russian public-relations move rather than a substantive diplomatic step. Ukrainian coverage also stresses the concern in European capitals about being sidelined from decisions about Ukraine's future, and at least one headline adopts the characterisation of the former Russian intelligence officer cited by the WSJ, calling Putin's trilateral ambitions 'unrealistic'.
How international sources describe it
The one non-Ukrainian source in the synthesis, Al Jazeera Arabic, presents the proposal straightforwardly as Putin offering a trilateral summit to discuss ending the war, without the sceptical or alarmist adjectives used by many Ukrainian outlets. International framing, as relayed through the Ukrainian-language summaries of the WSJ, also includes analytical context: China is seeking to position itself as a great-power mediator, while Putin is reported to harbour ambitions for a 'second Yalta' that would divide the world into spheres of influence.
Where reporting differs
Ukrainian sources emphasise that Putin's proposal frames any settlement on terms favourable to Russia and that the format excludes Zelensky, while Peskov in his WSJ interview describes the meeting as purely hypothetical with no agenda set, suggesting a routine diplomatic possibility rather than a substantive negotiation. Ukrainian and several international summaries also note the WSJ's assessment that excluding Zelensky would be unprecedented and would cause alarm in European capitals, whereas Peskov's framing does not acknowledge these concerns.
Background
Earlier in the year, Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov floated the possibility of a US-Russia-China leaders' meeting at the APEC summit in Shenzhen on 18–19 November, saying on 23 August that the US had not yet signalled willingness. In September, the US invited Putin to the G20 summit scheduled for 14–15 December 2026 in Miami, prompting discussion among Western allies. Putin has not attended a G20 summit in person since 2019; since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian delegation at such meetings has been led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. President Zelensky has said he is ready to meet Putin in the G20 Miami format and, after meeting Trump at the UN General Assembly on 22 September, suggested that Trump himself could organise a trilateral meeting. On 23 September, Peskov said Putin was ready to meet Trump and Zelensky only under unnamed Russian 'preconditions'. CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed a Putin-Zelensky-Trump meeting in Moscow on 25 August 2026. Trump and Putin last met in person in Alaska in August 2025, without producing a ceasefire or peace deal. Trump has publicly accused Zelensky of not wanting to end the war, while Zelensky has accused Trump of pressing Ukraine toward capitulation and of delaying deliveries of Patriot interceptor missiles.