US Invites Putin To G20 Summit In Miami, Rubio Says
by Alex Raufoglu · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · JoinNEW YORK -- The United States has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the Group of 20 summit in Miami in December, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on September 23, as the Trump administration is seeking steps to reduce fighting in Ukraine.
“We've invited President Putin to the G20," Rubio told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. "We think it's an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders.”
The invitation was the first public confirmation that Washington had invited Putin to the G20 leaders' summit. Russian officials have previously been invited to ministerial-level meetings.
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Rubio said the summit could provide an opportunity for Putin and US President Donald Trump to meet; he later made clear to journalists that the meeting had not been agreed. The two leaders have spoken by phone several times since Trump returned to office in 2025, but Rubio said a face-to-face meeting would be more useful if it had a clearly defined outcome.
Before the Rubio-Lavrov meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a Trump-Putin summit would require preparatory work.
Rubio said Trump's willingness to meet adversaries was behind the decision to invite Putin.
“The president of the United States, this president, is willing to engage and meet with virtually anyone," he said. "If you only meet with people that you agree with, then these are very nice meetings, but nothing happens," Rubio added. "In order to solve problems, you have to meet with people that you disagree with.”
But Rubio cautioned against treating the invitation as evidence that a leaders' meeting or a broader agreement was imminent.
Proposed Energy Truce
Rubio's comments came as Washington was also pressing Moscow and Kyiv to consider a limited cease-fire covering attacks on energy infrastructure and possibly grain-related targets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for an end to attacks on energy facilities. After meeting Trump in New York on September 22, Zelenskyy said Kyiv was prepared to halt such strikes if Russia did the same. Reuters reported that an earlier understanding over energy targets had quickly collapsed after attacks resumed.
Rubio said the proposal had been discussed in recent US contacts with both sides, including by US envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner.
The secretary of state stressed that an energy truce would not amount to a peace agreement. "It doesn't solve the war," Rubio said but argued that it could reduce some of the consequences of the conflict and provide a possible basis for wider negotiations.
"Ultimately, we all want this war to end," he added.
When pressed on why Washington was urging Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian energy facilities despite years of Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid, Rubio acknowledged that the targets serve different purposes.
“When you come to energy for the Russian side, the energy strikes they're facing are [targeting] refineries and oil and gas [facilities]," he said. "For the Ukrainian side, energy means their electrical grid.”
Rubio said Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure were aimed at reducing Moscow's revenue, while Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid were directly affect electricity supplies and other basic services.
That distinction, he said, made an agreement harder to reach but did not make it less worthwhile. "That's why it's not easy overnight to just say let's reach an agreement," Rubio said. "But it's something that I think is worth investing in trying to make that happen."
Kyiv has stepped up attacks on Russian oil facilities in recent weeks, while Russia has continued strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
No Breakthrough With Lavrov
Rubio gave few details about his meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov and did not announce any agreement.
The State Department said the two discussed the war in Ukraine and US-Russian relations. The meeting took place as Washington seeks to keep diplomatic channels open while testing whether Moscow and Kyiv can agree on limited measures to reduce the fighting.
The Kremlin has said there are currently no conditions for moving to formal peace negotiations, while also saying Putin remains open to contact with Trump.
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Rubio also warned that the conflict could spill beyond Ukraine through sabotage, hybrid attacks, or an accident involving military forces.
"One of the concerns we have, among many, about the war between Russia and Ukraine is that it could metastasize and spread into other places," he said.
He cited the possibility of a hybrid or sabotage attack, or an incident involving military aircraft.
"It could grow into somewhere else, be it through a hybrid attack, be it through a sabotage attack, be it through a misunderstanding," Rubio said.
Washington has raised such concerns with European governments, he said, amid heightened fears that the war could generate new flashpoints outside Ukraine.
US Invites Putin To G20 Summit In Miami, Rubio Says
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