Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Monday that talks involving Ukraine, the United States and Russia could help end the war, while a meeting replacing Kyiv with China would encourage Moscow to keep fighting.
In a post on X, Sybiha argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin should accept a ceasefire before being invited to meet President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Inviting Putin without such a step would give him undeserved standing, Sybiha wrote. He called Putin a “war criminal” and rejected Russia’s claim to global influence.
“And Russia is not a global power; it is a global problem,”
The Kremlin acknowledged Monday that a possible meeting involving Trump, Putin and Xi at next month’s APEC summit in China had come up in discussions. But spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no specific proposals or agreements covered the meeting or its agenda, according to Reuters.
Peskov also said a final peace settlement would require Ukraine’s participation.
Sybiha challenged Russia’s economic and military position as part of his argument against the proposed format. He said its economy was at least 13 times smaller than the U.S. economy and eight times smaller than China’s.
He claimed Russia’s economy and living standards were falling rapidly and that sanctions had left its technology, industry and businesses stagnating. The post did not specify the economic measure behind the comparisons.
Sybiha also put Russian military losses at 1.6 million killed and wounded. That figure and his economic assertions were not independently verified for this report.
Rather than accepting a ceasefire, Putin was intensifying attacks on civilians, Sybiha said. He argued that those attacks should rule out an invitation to negotiations with Trump and Xi.
At the European Commission’s Monday briefing, spokesman Christian Wigand said Putin could stop the war immediately. He reiterated the European Council’s position that Europe must have a role in a settlement and defend its interests.
The Commission reaffirmed that any settlement must respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity. It provided no further information about preparations for the proposed meeting.
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