U.S. President Donald Trump (R) greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on August 15, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin had reportedly suggested a summit between himself, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for a deal to end the Ukraine war.
The meeting was mentioned in a phone call to Trump on Oct. 9, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the matter. The call also produced a deal for Moscow to sell diesel oil on the global market.
The summit is not confirmed, but if it takes place will not involve Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and may take place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
The report comes amid mounting tensions between Ukraine and the U.S., its largest military backer. The Trump administration's recent steps that seem to be taking a pro-Russian turn have caused alarm among European allies and prompted criticism even from some members of Trump's own Republican Party in the U.S.
Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump had defended his decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, as well as an executive order on Oct. 18 to waive new Russia sanctions from a bill introduced by the late Senator Lindsey Graham.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy said that ″the decision to undo all of this, to block all of it, seems wrong to me."
Trump accused Zelenskyy in a post on Truth Social of not wanting to end this war, and said his decision for sanctions relief on Russia was to not "do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table."
"Trump's October 16 Executive Order does not support Trump's stated foreign policy objectives of ending the war in Ukraine and will only enable Russia to continue financing and protracting the war in Ukraine without any proper incentives that may force Russia to engage in any meaningful peace negotiations," the Institute for the Study of War wrote in a report.
Energy strikes
The latest move comes after Trump told Ukraine to stop striking Russian energy infrastructure, claiming that it was driving up diesel prices.
A so-called "energy ceasefire" announced by Trump on Oct. 11 saw Moscow continuing strikes on Ukraine's infrastructure. Ukraine had then paused strikes for three days, but resumed attacks again last Thursday.
"America should see that Russia is not taking any reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief or agreements. On the contrary, they take every signal of an opportunity to make money as proof that their bet on war is paying off and they can keep fighting," the Ukrainian president wrote on Sunday.
On Sunday, he also told Bloomberg that "steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate."
"I am not saying that this is the goal our partners are pursuing. I don't want to think that our American partners believe the war" against Russia "could be ended sooner at Ukraine's expense. But that's how it looks."
Over the weekend, both Kyiv and Moscow traded strikes, with Ukraine launching a strike of over 1,000 drones into Russia, setting fires at an oil export terminal and refinery in the city of St Petersburg, while Moscow pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles.
Starlink and Starshield
Last week, Kyiv also accused Washington of ordering restrictions on its Starshield networks, the military grade version of SpaceX's Starlink which it uses to control military forces and defend against Russian strikes.
Trump denied on Friday that the White House had ordered restrictions on Starlink satellite internet services provided to Ukraine's armed forces.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pinned responsibility for any restrictions on the U.S. government and Trump, writing on X that, "Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government."
The restrictions meant that platforms that traveled above 160 kilometers an hour (100 miles an hour), such as interceptor drones, had lost connectivity.
Ukrainian media reported Zelenskyy as saying that the restrictions were a "planned operation," as Ukraine had sent cars with Starlink to EU countries to test Starlink's connectivity, and discovered that there were no such restrictions in those countries.
Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two U.S. officials, that the call to restrict Starlink in Ukraine came from the White House, but did not say who made the order.
The Telegraph reported on Friday that Musk "approached Donald Trump with the idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine," and both had a hand in imposing the restrictions.
—CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.