EditZelenskyy offers to meet Putin at Miami G20
The statement comes after Washington already invited Russia back at ministerial level last month
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is ready to travel to Miami and meet Vladimir Putin in person if the Russian leader attends the G20 summit in December, stressing that outcomes matter more than rhetoric.
In a Deutsche Welle interview recorded on 11 September at Canadian Forces Base North Bay, Zelenskyy answered immediately when asked whether he would go if Putin were present: “Yes, of course. We have to come. We have to meet, to speak and make decisions.” He added that the content of any conversation was secondary: “It’s not about words. What I will tell him or what he wants to tell me, it doesn’t matter. Results matter. That’s it.”
The two leaders have not met face to face since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Putin last attended a G20 summit in person in 2019; the Kremlin has not yet said whether he will travel to Miami.
The offer comes after Washington already brought Russia back into the G20 process at ministerial level. As EUalive reported, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hosted Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, at the end of August — the first time a Russian finance minister had sat at the table in person since the 2022 invasion.
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European ministers were taken aback. Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domański said he did not trust Russia and found conversation difficult; German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil called Siluanov’s presence “quite troubling” and said Europe was preparing further sanctions. European delegations refused to appear in the traditional group photograph with him. Bessent nevertheless held a bilateral meeting with Siluanov that U.S. officials said focused on President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan, while making clear that no economic relief for Russia would be possible until the war ended.
The December leaders’ summit is scheduled for 14–15 December at Trump National Doral Miami. Whether Putin attends – and whether a Zelenskyy–Putin encounter actually takes place – remains an open question. The U.S. invitation to Siluanov already showed that Washington is prepared to treat Russia as a G20 participant again. Zelenskyy’s statement now tests whether that approach will extend to the leaders’ level.
Caption: In Canada, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Ukrainian military pilots training at the International Test Pilots School in North Bay, 12 September 2026 [ Website of the President of Ukraine]
Updated: September 12, 2026 - 11:09
