Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the United States has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami this December, the first leaders-level invitation to Moscow as Washington presses for an energy truce in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that the United States has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami this December, the first public acknowledgment that the invitation reached the leaders' level. The move signals that President Donald Trump is willing to put his Russian counterpart in the same room as the world's major economies while Washington pushes to wind down the war in Ukraine.
Rubio announced the invitation in New York after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. "We've invited President Putin to the G20," he told reporters. "We think it's an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders."
Until now, Moscow had only received invitations to ministerial-level G20 meetings. A leaders-level invitation is a different order of magnitude, and it lands as the administration works a dual track of public pressure and direct diplomacy.
The G20 groups the world's largest economies, and the United States holds the rotating presidency this year, with Miami set to host leaders in December. That gives the White House control over the guest list at a moment when it is trying to reorder several relationships at once.
Trump and Putin have spoken by phone several times since Trump returned to office in 2025, but they have not held a face-to-face meeting in this term. Rubio said the Miami summit could create that opening, while making clear that nothing has been locked in.
"The president of the United States, this president, is willing to engage and meet with virtually anyone," Rubio said. "If you only meet with people that you agree with, then these are very nice meetings, but nothing happens. In order to solve problems, you have to meet with people that you disagree with."
The Kremlin is treating the prospect more cautiously. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before the Rubio-Lavrov meeting that any Trump-Putin summit would require preparatory work. Rubio agreed that a leaders' meeting would be more useful with a clearly defined outcome attached to it.
The invitation came as the administration pressed both Moscow and Kyiv to consider a limited cease-fire covering attacks on energy infrastructure and possibly grain-related targets. The push follows Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on September 22, after which Zelenskyy said Kyiv was prepared to halt strikes on Russian energy facilities if Russia did the same. An earlier understanding over energy targets collapsed quickly once attacks resumed.
Envoys Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner have carried the proposal in recent contacts with both sides. That effort runs through the same back channel the administration has used throughout the year, including the CIA director's secret Moscow visit that pushed Russia toward peace in Ukraine.
Rubio was blunt that a truce is not a peace deal. "It doesn't solve the war," he said, arguing that it could reduce the conflict's consequences and lay a foundation for wider negotiations. "Ultimately, we all want this war to end."
Lavrov used a UN Security Council session later in the day to say Russia would not pause its "special military operation" while negotiations were under way, regardless of format. He accused Europe of wanting to buy time and replenish Kyiv's depleted arsenals.
Rubio acknowledged the asymmetry at the heart of the truce idea. Russian strikes on Ukraine target the electrical grid, while Ukrainian strikes on Russia focus on refineries and oil and gas infrastructure in an effort to cut Moscow's revenue.
"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."
The Kremlin has said there are currently no conditions for moving to formal peace negotiations, while also insisting that Putin remains open to contact with Trump.
Rubio also warned that the war could spread beyond Ukraine through a hybrid attack, a sabotage operation, or an incident involving military aircraft, and said Washington has raised those concerns directly with European governments. The fear is not a battlefield breakthrough but an accident or a proxy strike that drags NATO into the fight.
The immediate test is whether Moscow and Kyiv can agree on the narrow energy truce, which would be the first measurable de-escalation in months and the strongest evidence yet that Trump's direct diplomacy can produce results. The longer test is the December summit itself, and whether the Kremlin keeps stalling while the invitation sits on the table.
For now, the White House has done what its critics said was impossible. It has opened a door to the Kremlin without abandoning pressure, and it has put the ball squarely in Moscow's court.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the United States has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami this December, the first leaders-level invitation to Moscow as Washington presses for an energy truce in Ukraine.
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