Kyiv; September 2026: While addressing the media personnel at the Canadian Forces Bay North Base Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his willingness to meet his Russian Counterpart Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Miami this December (2026).
Zelenskyy said a face-to-face meeting should focus on reaching concrete decisions rather than exchanging statements. “Yes, of course. We have to come. We have to meet, talk and make decisions”, Zelenskyy said when asked whether he would be willing to meet Putin at the summit. The Ukrainian president added that the substance of any potential meeting would be measured by its outcome. “It does not matter what I tell him or what he wants to tell me. Only the result will matter. That is all”, Zelenskyy said.
The G20 leaders’ summit in Miami is scheduled for December 14th & 15th, this year (2026). Ukraine is currently not listed among the invited non-G20 countries on the summit’s official website. It also remains unclear whether Putin will attend the meeting in person.
Zelenskyy has previously said that Ukraine, the US, and Russia could hold a trilateral meeting as early as this autumn. He said he first plans to meet US President Donald Trump in September, after which work could begin on organizing broader negotiations.
The Ukrainian President has named Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates among possible venues for future trilateral talks, saying other countries have also offered to host negotiations. He has indicated that issues including energy and grain could be discussed.
Zelenskyy and Putin have not held direct talks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Their only in-person meeting took place in Paris on December 9, 2019, during a Normandy Format summit involving Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany. Zelenskyy and Putin held a brief bilateral meeting before wider negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations.
Earlier, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner discussed the possibility of a limited winter ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, potentially including a mutual pause on strikes against energy infrastructure.
President Zelensky was addressing the media after signing a 100-year partnership declaration with Canada, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Zelenskyy has underlined the importance of the deal, which he said covered numerous sectors, "from security, financing, energy, very important energy, veteran policy, and culture, and relationships and humanitarian issues. So, it's a global decision, a really historic decision, and I'm happy that we have it", he said. Zelenskyy said he had also signed a deal on collaboration on drone production with the Canadian leader involving a number of Ukrainian companies.
The Ukrainian president has conceded that his country has been struggling to counter flying jet-propelled drones that Russia has been increasingly deploying. "The US have political will to sell and to help, but the production is not too big. So, it means that stocks is a variant. Will Americans be ready to give us Patriots? I don’t know. We will see". Patriot missiles are powerful weapons that are currently the most effective defence against Russian ballistic missile attacks.
"Russia currently produces 140 ballistic missiles per month. So, according to the rules of NATO, if you want to destroy 140, you need a 1-to-2 ratio, 280 missiles", Zelenskyy told the media reporters, while further adding "You will never have 280 missiles per month, and between us, it’s a huge challenge to have even 100 missiles per month. This is what I want. I want to have 100-120 for these difficult months, especially the cold months".
Germany earlier this week said it was going to send Patriot missiles from its national stock, without specifying how many missiles that would be. Zelenskyy called on Kyiv's European allies to provide more support. "They have to give as much as possible. With all respect to them, they have to give to Ukrainians to save their lives".
Zelenskyy also spoke of having secured agreements with several European companies to develop a Ukrainian-led anti-missile system called Freya. He said he was hoping that the first test phase would begin by the end of December, stressing that time was short.
The other concern that has been coming up steadily over this summer is the shipment of grains through the Black Sea, with Moscow and Kyiv currently targeting each other's ships and hindering exports.
Russia's de facto blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports in the Odesa region has led to a 76% fall in Ukraine's grain exports year-on-year so far in August. Zelenskyy said he had spoken with the two envoys about an energy and grain ceasefire that could provide a starting point for peace. "What can bring us to any kind of negotiations? So, energy and grain. This is step number one. What we can achieve", he said.
Team Maverick.
