Trump wants Russia–Ukraine peace deal at December G20 in Miami, willing to pressure Kyiv — The Atlantic
The Atlantic reported, citing unnamed sources, that US President Donald Trump wants Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace deal at the G20 summit in mid-December, planned for a Trump-owned golf resort near Miami. Trump's advisers said he envisions himself standing between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky at the signing and is willing to force Ukraine to agree. Zelensky has confirmed his participation and said he is ready to meet Putin under any circumstances; Putin has not yet agreed to attend.
Key points
- Trump wants Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace deal at the mid-December G20 summit at his golf resort near Miami, The Atlantic reported.
- Trump's advisers told The Atlantic he wants to stand between Putin and Zelensky at the signing and is willing to pressure Ukraine to agree.
- Zelensky has confirmed his participation in the G20 and said he is ready to meet Putin under any circumstances to end the war.
- Putin has not yet agreed to attend the G20; if he does, it would be his first multilateral summit in a Western country since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- An anonymous Ukrainian official told The Atlantic that Kyiv feels decisions about its future are being made without Ukraine.
Why it matters
The report crystallises the pressure campaign the US has been running on Kyiv throughout October — demands to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, threats to cut intelligence and satellite communications, and calls for Zelensky to step down — and gives it a concrete endpoint: a Trump-brokered signing ceremony at the December G20. Zelensky's readiness to meet Putin under any circumstances sits against Putin's non-committal stance and against the backdrop of a separate Putin-proposed mid-November summit with Trump and Xi Jinping in China from which Ukraine would be excluded. The Atlantic concluded that if Trump achieves his aim in the next eight weeks, it may amount to Ukraine's capitulation rather than a negotiated settlement.
What happened
The Atlantic reported on 21 October that Donald Trump wants Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace deal at the G20 summit scheduled for mid-December at a Trump-owned golf resort near Miami, and is prepared to pressure Ukraine into agreeing. Advisers described Trump as envisioning himself standing between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky at the moment of signing. Zelensky has confirmed he will attend and said he is ready to meet Putin under any circumstances to agree on ending the war; Putin has not yet committed to the summit. An anonymous Ukrainian official told the magazine it feels like decisions about Ukraine's future are being made without Ukraine.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian coverage centres on the pressure being applied to Kyiv and on a sense of being sidelined from decisions about its own future, quoting an anonymous Ukrainian official who told The Atlantic: "It seems like all this is happening without us." The outlets highlight Zelensky's confirmation of his G20 participation and his willingness to meet Putin under any circumstances, contrasting this with Putin's non-committal stance. They also draw attention to the sequence of US measures against Ukraine in October: threats to cut intelligence, weapons and the PURL funding mechanism, public calls for Zelensky to step down, and demands to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries.
How international sources describe it
The Atlantic framed its reporting around three upcoming events that could shape the war: US midterm elections on 3 November, a Putin-proposed mid-November summit with Trump and Xi Jinping in southern China from which Ukraine would be excluded, and the December G20 in Miami. The magazine concluded that Trump achieving his goal in the next eight weeks may amount not to negotiations but to Ukraine's capitulation. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Russia could perceive an invitation to the G20 as encouragement of its aggressive policy; Germany's response was that it had taken note of the invitation. Bloomberg, citing Kremlin sources, reported that Putin is likely to skip the G20 and visit China instead.
Background
The US has already eased some Russia-related sanctions and lifted restrictions on Russian diesel imports, with the Treasury issuing a licence for transactions with Russian diesel through 7 April 2027. US pressure on Kyiv throughout October has included demands to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries — an "energy ceasefire" Trump announced on 11 October that, according to the Financial Times, Kyiv was unaware of and that turned out to cover only oil refineries — threats to cut off intelligence, weapons and the PURL funding mechanism, and proposed ceasefire terms along the current front line. Trump told Zelensky on 10 October that Ukraine "needs a new president" and accused him of missing a chance to end the war; on 15 October he said Zelensky must make concessions to Putin because Russia has greater mobilisation resources. On 14 October Ukrainian forces faced restrictions on Starlink operation at high speeds. Putin has separately proposed a mid-November summit with Trump and Xi Jinping in southern China that would not include Ukraine at the negotiating table.