Putin reportedly proposes three-way summit with Trump and Xi on Ukraine war — without Zelenskyy

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly floated a three-way summit between himself, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the table.

The meeting was mentioned in a phone call to Trump on Oct. 9, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the matter. Such a summit may take place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to the report.

The call also produced a deal for Moscow to sell diesel on the global market.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said early Monday that “there’s been talks of a meeting. I don’t know whether it’s been finalized, but the president has been clear,” he said in comments reported by Reuters.

“The president is open to anything that he can do to help bring a war to an end, if it’s possible, and we’ll continue to look for opportunities to do that,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Uzbekistan.

It comes amid mounting tensions between Ukraine and the U.S., its largest military backer. Over the past week, a series of moves by the Trump administration has raised fresh questions about Washington’s reliability as Kyiv’s most important military partner. It caused alarm among European allies and prompted criticism from fellow Republicans.

Over the weekend, Trump defended his decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, as well as an executive order on Oct. 18 to waive new Russia sanctions from a bill introduced by the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

Trump and Zelenskyy have traded criticism over how to end the war in Ukraine, with Trump accusing the Ukrainian president of not wanting peace, while Zelenskyy has argued that Washington’s easing of sanctions on Russia risks prolonging the conflict. In a post on X, Zelenskyy said that ″the decision to undo all of this, to block all of it, seems wrong to me.”

The tensions come as Russia launched another wave of overnight attacks on Ukraine, firing 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region and more than 200 drones across the country, according to Zelenskyy.

In a post on X on Monday, Zelenskyy said the strikes damaged more than 10 energy infrastructure facilities, leaving at least 550,000 households without power. He also said Ukraine had once again received no advance warning from its partners about the missile attacks. Casualties were reported, while a medical clinic, school, metro station and residential buildings were also damaged.

A so-called “energy ceasefire” announced by Trump on Oct. 11 saw Moscow continuing strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure. Ukraine had then paused strikes for three days, but resumed attacks again last Thursday.

“America should see that Russia is not taking any reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief or agreements. On the contrary, they take every signal of an opportunity to make money as proof that their bet on war is paying off and they can keep fighting,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Sunday.

On Sunday, he also told Bloomberg that “steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate.”

“I am not saying that this is the goal our partners are pursuing. I don’t want to think that our American partners believe the war” against Russia “could be ended sooner at Ukraine’s expense. But that’s how it looks.”

Over the weekend, both Kyiv and Moscow traded strikes, with Ukraine launching a strike of over 1,000 drones into Russia, setting fires at an oil export terminal and refinery in the city of St Petersburg, while Moscow pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles.

Trump denied on Friday that the White House had ordered restrictions on Starlink satellite internet services provided to Ukraine’s armed forces.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pinned responsibility for any restrictions on the U.S. government and Trump, writing on X that, “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government.”

The restrictions meant that platforms that traveled above 160 kilometers an hour (100 miles an hour), such as interceptor drones, had lost connectivity.

Ukrainian media reported Zelenskyy as saying that the restrictions were a “planned operation,” as Ukraine had sent cars with Starlink to EU countries to test Starlink’s connectivity, and discovered that there were no such restrictions in those countries.

Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two U.S. officials, that the call to restrict Starlink in Ukraine came from the White House, but did not say who made the order.

The Telegraph reported on Friday that Musk “approached Donald Trump with the idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine,” and both had a hand in imposing the restrictions.

—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.