Rubio Discusses Potential Trump-Putin Meeting with Lavrov

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed on Saturday that he had a brief conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, during the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rubio disclosed that the discussion focused on the possibility of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in China, during next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit.

In a related context, Rubio mentioned the possibility of inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the G20 summit scheduled for December in Miami, if President Trump believes his presence could lead to "something positive."

Bوتين had previously expressed readiness to hold a phone conversation with Zelenskyy, a move that raises Kyiv's doubts about Moscow's objectives in proposing this option, amid Ukraine's insistence on holding a direct meeting between the two presidents to discuss core issues related to ending the war.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Putin is "open to dialogue with everyone," adding, in response to a question about the possibility of a phone call with Zelenskyy, that "no one has called yet."

However, Ukrainian officials, who spoke to the "Kyiv Independent" newspaper on condition of anonymity, believe that Moscow is attempting to avoid a direct meeting between the presidents through this proposal, considering that a phone conversation will not achieve tangible progress on contentious files, particularly territorial issues and security guarantees.