The proposed Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest to discuss Ukraine has been put on hold after discussions between US and Russian officials. The decision was made following a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Plans for US President Donald Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss resolving the ongoing war in Ukraine have been put on hold, according to a US official. The meeting had been announced last week and was expected to take place in Budapest, although no specific date was announced.ย
The decision to pause the meeting came following a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Ongoing uncertainty surrounds Trump’s peace efforts
The repeated delays and changes regarding Trump’s plans reflect the complex and unpredictable nature of his efforts to resolve the conflict, which has now lasted nearly four years. Analysts describe the developments as another bout of whiplash in his diplomatic approach toward Ukraine.
Trump hosts Zelenskyy at White House
Earlier on October 17, President Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks at the White House. Zelenskyy said Trump reneged on the possibility of sending the long-range missiles to Ukraine, which would have been a major boost for Kyiv, following his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.ย According to Zelenskyy, Trump said during their meeting that Putin’s maximalist demand โ that Ukraine cede the entirety of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions โ was unchanged. Zelenskyy was diplomatic about his meeting with Trump despite reports that he faced pressure to accept Putin’s demands โ a tactic he has kept up since the disastrous Oval Office spat on February 28, when the Ukrainian president was scolded on live television for not being grateful for continued American support.
Trump-Putin Alaska Summitย
Earlier on August 15, there was a high-stake summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska which lasted for more than 2.5 hours.ย Following the meeting, the two leaders had addressed a joint press conference and called the summit ‘productive’. The summit, which was the first in-person meeting between a sitting US President and Putin since 2021, was organised with an aim to find a solution to bring an end to the Ukraine war that broke out in February 2022 and has claimed thousands of lives. Earlier, the two sides expressed hopes that the outcome of the meeting would be positive and would help in bringing an end to the Ukraine conflict.
(With inputs from AP)
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