Vladimir Putin would like to settle the future of Ukraine in a room where Ukraine itself has no chair. Moscow wants its leader at one table with Trump and China’s Xi in November, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday, quoting people briefed on the contacts. Moscow’s favoured stage is the APEC gathering of Pacific Rim economies, which China hosts in the southern city of Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November.
The idea reportedly surfaced during the lengthy Putin–Trump phone conversation of 9 October, the same conversation that produced the arrangement under which the United States buys Russian diesel. Moscow has made no attempt to deny the story. Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, acknowledged to the US paper that the idea was under discussion, but stressed that neither a date nor an agenda existed yet and that all three capitals merely consider such talks conceivable.
Washington sounds more cautious. According to a senior figure in the administration, Trump has not yet agreed to anything, though he might warm to the idea given his pledge to end a war that began in February 2022. Beijing has reportedly signalled that it would not stand in the way if Trump comes, yet Chinese officials are said to worry that a Ukraine side show could steal attention from their own summit and strain ties with Europe.
For Kyiv the format is close to a nightmare: three great powers bargaining over borders and security guarantees while neither Ukraine nor the European governments that fund much of its defence are present. The timing deepens the unease. On Friday Trump put on ice the penalties of anti-Russia legislation he had himself signed into law in September, including tariffs of up to 500 percent, arguing they would hurt negotiations. Volodymyr Zelensky complained that the step served Moscow alone.
For Putin such a meeting would be a double prize: influence over the terms and the picture of Russia sitting as an equal next to Washington and Beijing. Two signals are still missing, though – a formal answer from the White House and a slot on the APEC programme. Until both appear, the summit is a Kremlin wish rather than a date in anyone’s diary.
