US invites Putin to G20 summit at Trump's Miami golf club

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on the sidelines of a United Nations conference in New York that Washington has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit set for December at the Trump National Doral golf club in Miami. It would be the first major international summit with Putin personally present since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, marking a notable shift in the Trump administration's approach to Russia's international isolation.

Rubio issued the invitation after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, explaining that Trump is willing to meet with "virtually anyone" and that solving problems requires engaging with those one disagrees with. The Kremlin has not yet publicly responded to the invitation.

Russia remains a G20 member, but Putin has not personally attended a summit since 2019, joining one session virtually in 2023. The invitation is likely to concern Ukraine and other European leaders, who have recently accused Russia of launching hybrid attacks aimed at disrupting logistics and sowing political uncertainty among Kyiv's allies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, that he would be ready to travel to the summit and meet Putin if he attended, stressing that results matter more than words. On Tuesday, Trump and Zelenskyy met on the sidelines of the UN, where Zelenskyy called for a trilateral meeting, though the Kremlin has previously declined direct talks with Zelenskyy.

Alongside the diplomatic push, efforts are underway toward a partial ceasefire covering attacks on Russian oil refineries — Trump has urged Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil facilities to help ease diesel prices in the US. Russia, however, has continued heavy drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, with jet-powered Shahed drones battering the capital in recent days, while Ukraine struck a major Russian refinery over the weekend. Wednesday's strikes on Kyiv killed one person and injured eight others.

Last week, Congress passed a broad sanctions bill against Russia granting Trump authority to impose 100% tariffs on major buyers of Russian energy, including China and India.