BRUSSELS, September 24 — The European Union will keep condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine at the G20 summit in Miami this December, whether or not Vladimir Putin turns up. That was the message from the European Commission on Thursday, two days before the wider diplomatic picture around the summit sharpened further. EU spokesman Olof Gill said the bloc’s position has been fixed since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022 and will not bend to the guest list.
“Since 2022, the EU has consistently and forcefully used G20 meetings to condemn Russia’s full-scale invasion [of Ukraine] and to call for it to end,” Gill said. “What I can say today is that this approach, from the European Union perspective, will continue, irrespective of the participants at any G20 meeting.”
An invitation from Washington
Putin has been formally invited to the mid-December summit by the United States, which holds this year’s G20 presidency. The Kremlin has said he would “consider” the invitation. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the move after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with [US President Donald Trump], but with other world leaders,” Rubio said. “We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept.” Gill was careful to note that Russia remains a member of the G20 and retains “the right to participate” in its meetings.
The European Union itself sits at the table, alongside three of its member states — France, Germany and Italy. That arrangement gives Brussels both a seat and a bloc of aligned capitals when the Ukraine question comes up.
The question of exclusion
Ukraine’s allies, among them G20 members France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada, have called for Russia’s exclusion from the group since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. That push has not succeeded, and Russia’s membership has outlasted successive presidencies of the forum. Putin’s attendance record offers little guide.
He skipped the 2022 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali and the 2023 gathering in New Delhi, India, despite formal invitations from both hosts. His last visit to the United States was to attend a summit meeting with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025 — his first trip to a Western country since the war in Ukraine began.
Against this backdrop, the Miami summit will test whether the G20 can function as a venue for engagement with Moscow while a core group of its members continues to press for Russia’s isolation. For the EU, the calculation is straightforward: the condemnation continues, attendee or not. What to watch next is the Kremlin’s answer.
A decision to accept would put Putin in the same room as leaders who have spent four years calling for his isolation. A refusal would leave Washington’s invitation unanswered and the summit’s central diplomatic question unresolved.
