Putin Rejects Zelensky’s Proposal for Miami G20 Talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a proposal by President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold direct negotiations to end the war on the sidelines of the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit in Miami, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP. Peskov dismissed the prospect of bilateral talks in the US as “impossible,” stating that Putin is willing to meet Zelensky exclusively in Moscow.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The response follows remarks by Zelensky, in which he expressed readiness to travel to Florida for the gathering scheduled for Dec. 14-15, 2026, provided the Russian leader also attends. “Yes, of course. We must come. We must meet, talk, and make decisions,” Zelensky said in the interview, emphasizing that any high-level encounter must prioritize concrete outcomes rather than rhetoric. “It is not about words. What I tell him, or what he wants to tell me – that does not matter. What matters are results.” The Kremlin has not yet confirmed whether Putin will attend the summit in Miami. If convened, such a meeting would mark the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since December 2019, when they participated in Normandy Four negotiations in Paris alongside French and German heads of state. Multilateral summit diplomacy and trilateral peace formats The Kremlin’s rejection comes amid broader discussions regarding potential diplomatic engagement later this autumn. Earlier in the week, Peskov suggested that a separate trilateral meeting involving US President Donald Trump, Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping could occur on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in Shenzhen, China, scheduled for Nov. 18–19. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Hits Russian Chemical Plants and Taganrog Drone Sites, Zelensky Says Ukrainian forces struck two chemical plants in Perm and Samara and targeted drone production and air defenses in Taganrog, officials said. Russian state news agency TASS reported that the proposal was discussed during a phone call between Putin and Trump on Sept. 8. Concurrently, Moscow had signaled potential openness to reviving direct negotiations over the war, with Peskov previously stating that trilateral talks involving Ukraine, the US, and Russia could resume in the “foreseeable future.” Formal trilateral peace negotiations have remained suspended since mid-February 2026, following sessions in Abu Dhabi and Geneva. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.