Vladimir Putin has proposed a three-way meeting with President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month.
The Russian president raised the possibility of meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shenzhen, China.
The Chinese side has reached out to 'US counterparts' for clarity about the desire for such a meeting, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Any talks between Washington, Moscow and Beijing could turn to the topic of the conflict in Ukraine, without the involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It comes after the US president slammed Zelensky over the war, saying it’s time for 'somebody else' to negotiate for Ukraine.
Relations have soured between Washington and Kyiv after the Trump administration waived sanctions on Moscow, signed a deal to import Russian diesel and allegedly paused sharing intelligence.
The Kremlin on Monday confirmed that a three-way meeting could take place.
In comments to reporters during a trip to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that talks had been discussed but not finalised.
The scene as US President Donald Trump participates in events at the Great Hall of the People and does a greeting with the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping May 14, 2026
President Donald Trump greets Russia's President Vladimir Putin on the tarmac at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025
'I think the president is open to anything that he can do to help bring the war to an end, if it’s possible,' Rubio said.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump said he was open to meeting with Putin and Xi in China without the Ukrainian president but did not say whether such talks would occur.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a meeting between Trump, Xi and Putin had been discussed 'hypothetically,' but he added that 'no substantive proposals or agreements — neither regarding the meeting itself nor regarding a possible agenda or the content of the meeting — were discussed or put forward by anyone.'
China’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the matter.
The timing of the request — amid a deadly escalation in the conflict as both sides target a widening array of essential infrastructure — could mean the Kremlin leader is seeking to take advantage of an apparent fraying of the US-Ukraine relationship.
On Sunday, Zelensky publicly accused the Trump administration of restricting Kyiv’s access to Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service essential for Ukrainian military operations, without warning.
Trump and Rubio denied the allegation.
ussian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan July 3, 2024
A car burns after a Russian airstrike on a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, October 17
A firefighter works at a site of a reported Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a location given as Kherson, Ukraine, in this screengrab taken from a handout video released October 17
A woman weeps after seeing her home and her neighbours buried under the rubble following a Russian air strike on a residential block in Sloviansk, Ukraine, on October 17
A woman weeps after seeing her home and her neighbours buried under the rubble following a Russian air strike on a residential block in Sloviansk, Ukraine, on October 17
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha dismissed the idea of a meeting in China without Kyiv's input.
'A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, the US and Russia could help end the war sooner. A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China and the US would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war,' Sybiha wrote in a post on X.
'My decision on Russia is a very simple one,' the US president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. 'I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.
'Zelensky doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him … he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.'
He accused Ukraine of hurting US businesses by striking Russian diesel refineries.
Trump earlier also signed an executive order on Friday putting on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy.
But despite the tension, it is unclear whether China or the United States would accede to the Russian request.
China, which is set to host APEC for the first time in 12 years in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19, may hesitate at allowing a high-profile meeting with the potential to eclipse the 21-member forum.
And Beijing is cautious over the prospect of angering the European Union, one of Ukraine’s strongest backers and a crucial trading partner for China.
A trilateral meeting would be 'more in the interests of Moscow than Washington or Beijing,' a person familiar with the Russian discussion told the Journal.
A woman with a bloodied face and bandaged head following a Russian strike on a residential apartment building on October 14
A dazed Victoria Deineko holds on tightly to her daughter Mia as rescue workers attempt to control a fire at a multi-storey residential block hit by Russian missiles in Kyiv on October 13
An injured man is seen talking of the phone near the residential building damaged by a Russian ballistic missile as firefighters battle the blaze in Kyiv's Desnianskyi district on October 14
Peskov, who told reporters on a daily conference call that the US was continuing its mediation efforts to resolve the conflict and that Russia appreciated those efforts, said it was obvious that Ukraine would need to be involved in any final peace deal.
'Of course, a final settlement is impossible without the participation of someone in Kyiv who is prepared to take responsibility,' he said.
The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.
Ukraine and Russia remain as far apart as ever when it comes to the terms of any possible peace deal.