President Donald Trump has invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to attend the G20 summit of world leaders in Miami in December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
The invitation comes as Washington struggles to broker a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Trump insisting that he is working with both sides to bring the war to an end.
“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with,” Rubio told reporters in New York.
“So we’ve invited President Putin to the G20,” he added.
“We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders. We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept,” Rubio said.
The top US diplomat spoke shortly after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a New York hotel on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The meeting came ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s scheduled address to the United Nations, where he was expected to again appeal for stronger air defenses to counter Russian drone and missile attacks.
But on Wednesday, Lavrov told the UN Security Council that Moscow would not halt its more than four-year war against Ukraine.
“We are not going to have a pause in our special military operation,” Lavrov said, accusing Europe of seeking to use any halt in the fighting to “pump the Kyiv regime with weapons.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, speaking after Lavrov, said his Russian counterpart’s remarks “said it all.”
He later added: “Russia’s war against Europe is no longer hybrid. Instead of safeguarding peace, Russia is spreading war. That’s everyone’s problem.”
Declaration of support
In a joint declaration issued on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, 51 countries, including France, Britain, Japan and Canada, reaffirmed their support for Ukraine.
“We are particularly concerned by the attacks in the Black Sea,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who read out the statement alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Sybiga.
The declaration said Russia was seeking to choke off Ukrainian grain exports and called for efforts to protect commercial shipping and critical infrastructure.
Rubio also urged Moscow and Kyiv to agree to an energy ceasefire. While such a truce would not end the war, he said, it could provide a platform for broader negotiations.
Rubio said both sides had expressed interest in a limited ceasefire covering energy infrastructure.
Zelensky has told journalists that Ukraine is ready to halt strikes on Russian energy facilities if Moscow agrees to do the same, after Trump called on him to stop targeting Russian oil refineries.
After meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Zelensky said Washington and Kyiv wanted the war with Russia to end “before winter.”
Trump and Putin have spoken by telephone on several occasions, but their most recent face-to-face meeting was in 2025.
West bank tensions
Separately, addressing the conflict in the Middle East, Rubio warned Wednesday that the last thing Israel or the wider region needed was for the West Bank to become a new crisis.
“The last thing Israel needs or the region needs is an additional crisis or an additional friction point,” Rubio said. “We understand that that’s the case and that’s what’s happening.”
AFP
