Putin Wants Trump-Xi Talks on Ukraine Without Zelenskyy
Sidney Blumenthal argues Trump is casting Zelenskyy as the villain while Moscow pushes for a settlement on its own terms
By AXY War & Crime Desk ·
Key points
- Putin has proposed a meeting with Trump and Xi Jinping on the Ukraine war that would exclude Zelenskyy.
- The Wall Street Journal described such a meeting as “unprecedented.”
- Blumenthal argues Trump is blaming Zelenskyy for inflation ahead of the midterms.
- Trump waived sanctions against Russia under the Lindsey Graham Act on 16 October, the same day Dmitriev celebrated a new alignment.
- Blumenthal uses the 1938 Munich Agreement to argue that the proposed format would repeat a historic mistake.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a meeting with US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to settle the war in Ukraine on Russian terms. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would not be in the room. The Wall Street Journal described such a meeting as “unprecedented,” a word that sits uneasily with a diplomatic process that has, for years, put Kyiv at the centre of any talks about its own territory.
Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime Washington writer and former adviser to Bill Clinton, argues in a Guardian column that the proposal is the next step in a pattern. In his telling, Trump is portraying Zelenskyy as the obstacle to peace while he works to win Putin’s approval. Blumenthal writes that if Trump could, he would fly to Munich to sign away Ukraine to Putin and come home waving the paper as “peace in our time.” The column is opinion, but it lays out a specific set of claims about Trump’s motives, Russia’s demands and the history Trump’s allies are invoking.
Putin’s Proposal for a Meeting Without Kyiv at the Table
The proposal is simple to state and hard to accept for Ukraine. Putin wants Trump and Xi to sit down together and settle a war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The meeting would take place without the Ukrainian president, which means the country whose land is at stake would not be a party to the talks that decide its future.
For ordinary Ukrainians, the question is not abstract. A settlement that is agreed over their heads could decide which towns stay under Ukrainian control, what security guarantees they receive and whether the fighting stops on terms that leave Russia with what it has taken. Blumenthal’s column argues that the proposed format is the point. A deal agreed between three leaders, with Kyiv absent, would reduce Ukraine to the object of the negotiation rather than one of its parties.
Why Trump Is Turning on Zelenskyy
He writes that Trump needs to shift blame before the midterm elections for the inflation he attributes to his tariffs and the Iran war.
That is the core of the argument. If voters are angry about prices, a foreign leader who can be cast as the problem offers a convenient target. Blumenthal writes that Trump is portraying himself as the victim while he goes after the Ukrainian president. Whether the political strategy works is a question for voters in the US, but the column makes clear that Blumenthal sees the rhetoric as a direct signal to Moscow that Washington is willing to move.
Blumenthal also describes the relationship as personal. He writes that Trump has long admired Putin as the kind of unconstrained strongman Trump has always wished to be, and that Putin is one of the few figures Trump has not sought to humiliate. This is the author’s interpretation of Trump’s motives, not a documented account, and it should be read that way.
Trump’s Long Admiration for Putin, From Moscow in 1987
Blumenthal traces the relationship back to Trump’s first visit to Moscow in 1987. He writes that Trump has dreamed since then of the business deals Putin could offer him in Russia. On his return from that trip, Trump paid for full-page advertisements in major newspapers. The ads called on the US to stop funding the defence of countries able to defend themselves and to stop protecting the flow of oil through the Gulf.
The ad’s wording is what Blumenthal quotes most heavily. “The world is laughing at America’s politicians as we protect ships we don’t own, carrying oil we don’t need, destined for allies who won’t help,” the ad said. Blumenthal uses the passage to argue that Trump’s foreign policy instincts have been consistent for decades, and that his position on allies has been shaped as much by his own sense of grievance as by strategy.
Blumenthal adds that Trump’s ideology has served his greed, pointing to the “America First Collection” of digital tokens that Trump later launched. The column presents this as evidence that Trump’s public positions and private commercial interests have long been intertwined. Those claims are Blumenthal’s, and they are framed here as his argument.
Dmitriev’s “Together” Post and the Sanctions Waiver
The column points to a social media post by Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. Dmitriev wrote “Together” over a graphic showing the Russian bear and the American eagle on the same side. The image was poised to fight against the British lion and a shattered European Union flag.
That detail matters because it links the diplomatic rhetoric to an action that eases pressure on Moscow. Sanctions are one of the main levers Washington and its partners have used since the invasion, so a waiver on the day a Russian official celebrates a new alignment is, in Blumenthal’s reading, not a coincidence.
The column does not claim to know what was discussed in private, and it does not say the waiver was a direct response to Dmitriev’s post. It presents the two events side by side and asks readers to draw the conclusion that the pressure is shifting. Readers should weigh that as commentary.
Chamberlain, Munich and the Limits of the Comparison
Blumenthal’s column is built around the 1938 Munich Agreement, when Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, agreed to let Nazi Germany take the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain believed that giving Hitler what he wanted would keep the peace. Within a year Germany had occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia, and in 1939 it invaded Poland, starting the Second World War.
Blumenthal acknowledges that Chamberlain’s motives were complicated. He writes that Chamberlain was driven by a well-grounded fear of another catastrophic war after the carnage of the first one, and by a wishful belief that Hitler would be satisfied after taking Czechoslovakia. The column draws a sharp distinction here. Chamberlain did not send a son-in-law and former golf and real estate partner ahead to negotiate back-end deals with the Nazis for personal profit, Blumenthal writes.
History has judged Chamberlain harshly, but Blumenthal notes that Winston Churchill, who later succeeded him as prime minister, was more generous. Churchill described Chamberlain’s “perfect sincerity according to his lights” and said his mistaken gesture was rooted in the “noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart.” Blumenthal uses that passage to argue that good intentions do not excuse a settlement that rewards aggression.
Blumenthal also makes a historical point about the Munich comparison. He notes that the proposed Trump-Xi-Putin format would be unprecedented only in the sense that it would exclude the country under threat. He writes that the Czechs were not present at Munich when their country was handed to Hitler, which is why the parallel is so striking to him.
How a Three-Way Summit Could Leave Ukraine Out
The next test is whether Trump accepts Putin’s proposal for a meeting that excludes Zelenskyy. If it goes ahead, the format alone would give Moscow a platform to present its terms as the basis for a settlement, with Kyiv left to respond from the outside. That would be a significant shift from the approach Western governments have taken since 2022, when Ukraine’s leaders were treated as central to any negotiated end to the fighting.
The practical question for Ukraine is what a deal would contain. A settlement agreed by Trump and Putin, with Xi present, could leave open questions about territory, sanctions relief and security guarantees that Kyiv would then be asked to accept or reject. Blumenthal’s column does not set out the specific terms that might be discussed, and this report does not add any. What the column does show is the political logic he fears: a US president looking for a deal before an election, and a Russian leader ready to offer one on his own terms.
The midterms also shape the timeline. If Trump wants to show voters a result before polling day, a quick deal would serve him politically. If Zelenskyy is painted as the obstacle, Ukraine would have less room to refuse terms it considers unacceptable. Whether that pressure translates into an agreement is not yet clear. The proposal is on the table, the rhetoric has hardened, and the sanctions decision has already been made.
Questions and answers
Why does Putin want a meeting without Zelenskyy?
According to the column, Putin has proposed a meeting with Trump and Xi Jinping to settle the Ukraine war on Russian terms, without the Ukrainian president present. Blumenthal argues that the format would reduce Ukraine to the object of the talks rather than a party to them.
Why does Blumenthal say Trump is attacking Zelenskyy?
Blumenthal writes that Trump wants to shift blame before the midterm elections for inflation he links to his tariffs and the Iran war. He says Trump has increased his rhetoric against Zelenskyy as polls have fallen.
What is the Munich comparison about?
Blumenthal compares the proposal to the 1938 Munich Agreement, when Neville Chamberlain agreed to let Nazi Germany take part of Czechoslovakia. He argues that a deal made without the threatened country echoes that history.
What did Kirill Dmitriev post?
Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, posted the word “Together” over a graphic showing the Russian bear and American eagle on the same side against the British lion and a shattered European Union flag, on 16 October.
Topics: Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine war, Xi Jinping, Sidney Blumenthal, Kirill Dmitriev, Munich Agreement
Sources: The Guardian Ukraine
https://axynewsglobal.com/article/putin-wants-trump-xi-talks-on-ukraine-without-zelenskyy