Walkout over Russia’s Siluanov at G20 highlights tensions around Trump-linked Ukraine plan
European officials protested Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov’s presence at a U.S.-hosted G20 meeting, refusing to appear with him in a group photo even as U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent held talks focused on Donald Trump’s 28-point Ukraine peace proposal.
A dispute over Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov’s place at a U.S.-hosted G20 meeting has laid bare divisions over how to handle Moscow’s role in global economic forums while discussions about a proposed Ukraine peace plan continue.
European officials protested Siluanov’s attendance and many refused to join a traditional group photo with him, according to reporting cited from the Financial Times and other outlets. Siluanov ultimately did not appear in the photo. Despite this, U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent met the Russian minister and later described the talks as “productive”.
Ukrainian‑language reporting, drawing on a Fox Business correspondent and Reuters, said the meeting focused on Donald Trump’s 28‑point plan for ending the war in Ukraine. These accounts described the Trump proposal as the central topic of the Bessent–Siluanov conversation.
According to the same reporting, when Siluanov tried to discuss areas of mutual economic interest, Bessent interrupted him and said that nothing was possible until the issue of Ukraine was addressed. The detailed contents of Trump’s reported 28‑point plan have not been made public.
For European governments that have pushed to isolate Russia in international financial forums since the full‑scale invasion of Ukraine, Siluanov’s exclusion from the photo but inclusion in substantive talks illustrates an uncomfortable balance between symbolic pressure and practical engagement.
The episode also matters for Ukraine, which is not at the table in G20 finance meetings but is directly affected by any peace framework discussed there. How Kyiv responds to further reports about the Trump plan, and how often Russian officials are invited to or sidelined from future gatherings, will signal whether this meeting marks the start of a more structured negotiation channel or remains a one‑off controversy.
Sources
- OSINT