Trump Says It's 'Time for Somebody Else to Negotiate on Behalf of Ukraine' and Is Open to Meeting Putin and Xi Next Month

Since Trump signed an executive order late on Oct. 16 waiving new congressionally mandated Russia sanctions, the dispute with Kyiv has moved from sanctions policy to who should speak for Ukraine at the table.

Before leaving the White House for a campaign trip to Kansas, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn: "I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine." He added that Zelenskyy "is not helping matters much" and that "I think he doesn't want to stop it, but I want to see people not die."

Trump pointed back to the February 2025 Oval Office blowup. "If he would have listened to me, and you remember the Oval Office, he would have had to settle a long time ago," he said. He also said: "We've given a lot to Ukraine. They've given nothing to us. Remember that."

Trump put the human toll at "a million people" dead and said "very little land has moved." That figure is his own. He offered no source for it.

A possible summit in China

Trump also confirmed he is open to a meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping next month while he is in China. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked about a Wall Street Journal report that Putin floated a three-way summit in a phone call with Trump earlier this month, said: "I think there's been talks of a meeting. I don't know if anything's been finalized."

The Kremlin said Monday that because all three leaders might attend events in China, "the topic of such a hypothetical meeting was indeed mentioned." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that no concrete proposals or agreements, on the meeting itself or its agenda, have been discussed or put forward by anyone.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Monday that a meeting of the three leaders would "encourage Putin to continue this war."

What Kyiv and Trump each say

Trump's stated reason for the sanctions waiver is that he is negotiating. "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," he wrote on Truth Social on Oct. 18. He claimed "great progress is being made" and said of the additional sanctions: "I can sign it later, or any time that I want!"

Zelenskyy sees it differently. On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Oct. 18 he said: "If the United States will take the side of Russia, of course we will not prevail." He called siding with Russia a "historic mistake." He also said he wants to trust Trump and hopes he will change course.

The Kremlin has made no concessions in the talks. It continues to reject a full cease-fire and to demand control of territory it has not captured in battle.

A group of GOP senators signed a letter condemning Trump's Russian diesel deal. Trump struck that deal with Putin to buy diesel from Russia in an attempt to reduce high fuel prices, and it marked a stunning reversal of years of Washington's pressure on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The deal came days before the waiver.

The refinery strikes

Trump's anger centers on Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy. Ukraine hit the St. Petersburg oil terminal overnight into Oct. 18, in one of its biggest drone attacks on Russia this year.

Trump has said he told Zelenskyy not to hit refineries. He has tied the strikes to fuel prices at a time when his Republican Party is fighting a tight battle for control of the Senate and House ahead of the November midterms.

Zelenskyy's position is that Ukraine will stop hitting Russian refineries if Russia stops hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure. He wrote on X that this "is possible as early as today, but Putin does not want to do so."

Russia fired several ballistic missiles at Kyiv late on Oct. 18. One struck a medical center building, and Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said at least one person died.

Intelligence sharing

Zelenskyy said intelligence sharing that Ukraine says was interrupted earlier this week appears to have been "de-blocked." "We are very thankful for this," he said. "Now it works."

Asked about reports that the U.S. may have intentionally withheld early warnings of Russian missile strikes, Rubio said he was "not sure Zelenskyy knows what he's talking about, but it wasn't deliberate." He added: "We have nothing to do with that."

Ukrainian officials have separately claimed that Starlink satellite data was constrained last week, hampering their drone operations. Rubio said nobody ordered the Starlink speed to be slowed down and that, as he understands it, service has been restored.

Zelenskyy said he spoke with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Oct. 18 in what he called "nonstop communication" aimed at long-term peace.

What comes next

Trump has not said who he thinks should replace Zelenskyy as Ukraine's negotiator. Rubio says nothing about a Putin-Xi meeting has been finalized.

The waived sanctions can be signed by Trump at any time, by his own account. Whether he does so before a China meeting is the next test of his claim that the waiver is buying progress.