UNITED NATIONS: US 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 move comes as Washington struggles to secure a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, with Trump insisting that he is working with both sides to stop the war.
“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 on Wednesday.
“So we’ve invited President Putin to the G20,” he added.
Marco Rubio on Russia:
We’ve invited President Putin to the G20. We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with Trump, but with other world leaders.
We hope that’s an invitation he will accept. pic.twitter.com/e0GSz7Y8gm
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 23, 2026
“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 his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a hotel in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Their meeting also comes ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s scheduled address to the United Nations General Assembly.
But on Wednesday, Lavrov told the UN Security Council that Moscow would not halt its special military operation.
“We are not going to have a pause in our special military operation,” Lavrov said, accusing Europe of wanting to use a halt to the fighting to “pump the Kyiv regime with weapons.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, speaking after Lavrov, told the Security Council that his Russian counterpart’s comment “said it all.”
Rubio also encouraged Moscow and Kyiv to reach an energy ceasefire. While this does not end the war, it could create a platform for broader agreement, he noted.
Rubio said both sides have expressed interest in a limited ceasefire involving energy.
Zelensky has told journalists that Ukraine is ready to halt strikes on Russian energy sites if Moscow agrees to do likewise, after Trump called on him to stop hitting diesel refineries.
After meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Zelensky said that Washington and Kyiv want the war with Russia to end “before winter.”
While the United States and Russian presidents have spoken by telephone on various occasions, the last time they met was in 2025.
