WASHINGTON — Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., accused President Donald Trump on Monday of preparing to decide Ukraine’s future without Ukrainian participation. He said Trump had already waived sanctions on Russia. His comments came after reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a summit with Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Schiff posted at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 19. His full post read:
“As if waiving sanctions on Russia wasn’t enough, Trump now seems prepared to decide Ukraine’s future without Ukraine in the room.
Congress stood strongly, in a bipartisan vote, with Ukraine.
And we will not stop working to see this murderous regime sent packing out of Ukraine for good.”
Schiff linked a Politico article, the only outlet named in this report, headlined “Russia explores Putin, Trump, Xi summit on Ukraine deal.” It says Kyiv and the European Union face being cut out of a potential high-level summit on ending the war. It says Moscow has proposed talks with China and the United States on an agreement that would favor Russia after nearly five years of fighting.
The proposal was first reported by WSJ on Oct. 19. That report says Putin raised the idea in an Oct. 9 phone call with Trump. The same call produced a deal for the United States to buy Russian diesel fuel and help sell it on the global market. The Kremlin has suggested holding the meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, scheduled for Nov. 18-19 in Shenzhen, China.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed discussions are taking place. He said there is no clear understanding yet about the meeting or its agenda, though all three parties acknowledge it is hypothetically possible. A senior U.S. official said Trump has not agreed to a summit but could be receptive. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he did not know whether anything had been finalized. The White House declined to comment.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, rejected any peace summit without Kyiv. He said it would “encourage Putin to continue his war.” The report says Beijing indicated it would not object if Trump agrees to attend, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
The Sanctions Decision
The summit proposal follows a diesel pact between Trump and the Kremlin. On Friday, Trump halted implementation of sanctions that were to be imposed on Russia under a bipartisan bill he signed last month. A senior White House official said he made the decisions after seeing few other good options to lower prices. The report says the consensus among energy experts is that the Iran war is the primary cause of rising diesel prices.
Congress passed the Russia sanctions bill in September. The Senate approved it 86-11, and the House gave final approval by 262-159 on Sept. 16-17. It was the first Ukraine-related legislation passed by Congress in more than two years. An earlier draft allowed the president to waive sanctions by certifying to Congress that doing so served the national interest.
Schiff’s Record on Russia and Ukraine
Schiff’s criticism of excluding Ukraine from negotiations dates to the start of Trump’s second term. In a Feb. 19, 2025 statement, he accused Trump of “leaving Ukraine out of the negotiations over its own future.” He said Trump was sacrificing a democratic ally to appease the Russian leader, and that Ukraine must receive the support it needs to defend itself. That week he had joined Sens. Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse on a bipartisan delegation to the Munich Security Conference, where he urged strong bipartisan support for Ukraine.
In August 2025, ahead of the U.S.-Russia summit, Schiff said Trump had made concessions to Putin before the meeting. He objected to Trump ruling out Ukraine’s future in Europe and opening the door to territorial giveaways. He said he was concerned about how easily Trump could be manipulated by Putin.
Schiff has said Russia could exploit that dynamic. In a 2025 interview, he said “Putin has Trump’s number” and that Putin needs only to say a few nice things about Trump to get him to back down. Schiff was also the lead House prosecutor in Trump’s 2019 impeachment, which centered on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Trump has said he held off on sanctions because he did not want to drive Russia away from the bargaining table. The Politico article says U.S.-led efforts to broker an end to the war have largely stalled.