Zelensky demands to attend a meeting between USA, Russia and China

O Ukrainian President today argued that Ukraine should be present at a possible meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and China, after the possibility of this trilateral meeting was advanced by the American leader.

“ If this is about Ukraine and our future, it can only be acceptable if we are present at the negotiating table,” Volodymyr Zelensky said during a joint press conference in Oslo, Norway, with Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, after a meeting between the three and the White House special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The Ukrainian leader also mentioned that he transmitted new ideas to Witkoff to advance the peace process with Russia, as the special envoy of the Trump administration will travel on Wednesday to Moscow to meet with Putin.

“Steve [Witkoff] will go to Russia tomorrow [Wednesday] and see what Putin has to say about it,” said Zelensky, stressing that one of the elements of his proposal is a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, Russia and the United States at the level of leaders.

A few hours earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the dialogue between the United States, Russia and China against Kiev's criticism of a possible summit among the leaders of the three nuclear powers.

Rubio reacted to criticism of a possible meeting between US Presidents, Donald Trump, Russian, Vladimir Putin, and Chinese, Xi Jinping, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), scheduled for November in Shenzhen, China.

According to the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, the possibility of this three-way meeting was discussed during a telephone conversation between Trump and Putin on October 9, but denied that there was an agreement to hold the meeting during the APEC summit.

“ However, no concrete proposal or agreement, whether on the holding of the meeting itself, or on a possible agenda, was discussed or formulated by anyone,” he explained during his daily press conference.

The possibility of a tripartite meeting was criticized on Monday by the Ukrainian authorities, who warned that a meeting without Kiev's participation could encourage Moscow to continue the war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had already advocated a meeting between Ukrainian, American and Russian leaders instead.

Trump, who in recent weeks intensified criticism of Zelensky and called for his replacement as President of Ukraine, accused the Ukrainian official of “not helping much” to end the conflict.