On August 15, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump (Republican) welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly proposed a summit between himself, US President Donald Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the matter, that the meeting was mentioned in an Oct. 9 phone call with Trump. The call also produced an arrangement for the Russian government to sell diesel oil on the global market.
A summit meeting has not been confirmed, but if it does take place, it is possible that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will not be participating and it will be held at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference in Shenzhen, China, in November.
The report was released amid rising tensions between Ukraine and the United States, its largest military backer. The Trump administration’s recent actions, which appear to be tilting in a pro-Russian direction, have raised alarm among European allies and criticism from some members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s own Republican Party.
US President Donald Trump over the weekend defended his decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports and his October 18 executive order exempting new Russian sanctions from a bill introduced by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“The decision to undo all this and block everything seems wrong to me,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump accused President Zelensky of not wanting to end the war and said that President Zelensky’s decision to ease sanctions against Russia was due to “not doing anything that would foolishly push Russia away from the negotiating table.”
“President Trump’s October 16 executive order does not support President Trump’s stated foreign policy goal of ending the war in Ukraine and will only allow Russia to continue funding and prolong the war in Ukraine without the appropriate incentives that could compel Russia to engage in meaningful peace negotiations,” the Institute for the Study of War said in a report.
energy strike
The move comes after President Trump ordered Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, saying they were driving up diesel prices.
The so-called “energy ceasefire” announced by President Trump on October 11th allowed the Russian government to continue its attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. Ukraine then paused its attacks for three days, but resumed them again last Thursday.
“The United States should understand that Russia has not taken any reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief or agreements. On the contrary, Russia sees every signal of a money-making opportunity as proof that its war bet has paid off and that it can continue to fight,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Sunday.
He also told Bloomberg on Sunday that he had “taken steps to persuade Ukraine to surrender.”
“I’m not saying that this is the goal that our partners are pursuing. I don’t want to think that our American partners believe that they can end the ‘war with Russia’ sooner at the expense of Ukraine. But that’s the way it is.”
Over the weekend, both Kiev and Moscow exchanged attacks, with Ukraine launching attacks on Russia with more than 1,000 drones and torching oil export terminals and refineries in the city of St. Petersburg, while Moscow attacked Kiev with ballistic missiles.
starlink and starshield
Kiev last week accused the U.S. government of ordering restrictions on the StarShield network, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink, which it uses to control the military and protect it from Russian attacks.
President Trump on Friday denied that the White House had ordered restrictions on Starlink satellite internet services provided to Ukraine’s military.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pointed out that the responsibility for any restrictions lies with the US government and Trump, writing to X that “the StarShield system is owned and controlled by the US government.”
This restriction prevents platforms moving at speeds above 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour), such as interceptor drones, from connecting.
Ukrainian media reported that Zelenskyy said the restrictions were a “planned operation” because Ukraine sent Starlink-equipped vehicles to EU countries to test Starlink connectivity and found that no such restrictions existed in those countries.
Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two U.S. officials, that the request to restrict Starlink in Ukraine came from the White House, but did not say who gave the order.
The Telegraph reported on Friday that Musk had “approached Donald Trump with the idea of slowing Starlink’s activities in Ukraine” and that both were behind the restrictions.
—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
