Trump is open to a three-way summit with Putin and Xi - and is calling for Zelensky to be replaced

US President Donald Trump has shown himself open to a three-way summit on Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I would do that,” Trump told reporters in Washington on Monday. But the meeting has not yet been agreed. Trump said he assumed that it could be more about nuclear disarmament.

At the same time, Trump reiterated his call for Zelensky to be replaced. It is “time for someone else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine,” said the US President. The USA had given Ukraine a lot, said Trump. “They didn’t give us anything.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Putin has proposed a meeting to take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on November 18th and 19th in Shenzhen, China - without the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed such thoughts on Monday. “Since all three heads of state could potentially attend a summit in China, the topic of such a hypothetical meeting has actually already been raised,” Peskov said. However, there were neither “concrete proposals” nor agreements on how it would come about or on the agenda. A final agreement on Ukraine would also be “impossible” without “representatives from Kiev who are ready to take responsibility,” the Kremlin spokesman added.

The government in Kiev criticized a possible tripartite summit in Ukraine without the participation of its country. Such a meeting would only “encourage Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to continue this war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on Monday. Putin “cannot win the war nor does he want to end it.”

Zelensky wrote on social media that Ukraine never wanted the war with Russia and responded positively to all attempts by its partners to bring it to a “dignified end.” The fact that the fight continues is solely due to the Russian attacks and Moscow's will to prolong the war.