War in Ukraine: Russia says a meeting between Putin, Xi and Trump in China was “mentioned”

A meeting in China in November at the Apec summit between the Russian, Chinese and American leaders was “mentioned”, declared Monday October 19 the Kremlin spokesperson, who however ruled out any final agreement on the conflict in Ukraine without the presence of kyiv.

Ukraine at the heart of the discussions

According to the Wall Street Journal, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to his American counterparts Donald Trump and Chinese Xi Jinping a meeting to discuss an end to the conflict in Ukraine, during the Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit on November 18 and 19 in Shenzhen. Asked about the subject, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that “given that the three heads of state could potentially participate in the summit in China, a hypothetical meeting was indeed discussed.”

“But no concrete proposal or agreement, neither on the very holding of this meeting, nor on a possible agenda (...) was discussed or formulated by anyone,” he said during his daily press briefing. He also considered that any final agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine “without the participation of representatives of kyiv ready to assume their responsibilities is impossible.”

Renewed tension between Washington and kyiv

Also questioned on this subject Monday during a visit to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, American Secretary of State Marco Rubio was evasive. “I don’t know if it’s been finalized,” he said. But the American president “was clear. He wants the war between Ukraine and Russia to end. Washington's diplomatic efforts to put an end to the large-scale Russian offensive in Ukraine, launched in February 2022, are currently at an impasse.

Donald Trump spoke by telephone with his Russian counterpart in early October. He then announced an agreement between Washington and Moscow to purchase Russian diesel, then signed a decree exempting Russia from new American sanctions. At the same time, he accused his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, of “not wanting to end” the war, against a backdrop of renewed tensions between Washington and kyiv.