Trump Shelves Meeting with Putin Amid Ukraine War Talks

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has canceled a planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing concerns about a “wasted” meeting over the ongoing war in Ukraine.

This shift comes just days after Trump suggested he would meet with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, within two weeks. He described a recent phone call with Putin as productive and aimed at ending the conflict.

During a tense meeting in Washington last week, Trump reportedly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider ceding the eastern Donbas region as part of a peace agreement, as confirmed by a senior Ukrainian official.

On Tuesday, a White House official clarified that there were now “no plans” for Trump to meet with Putin anytime soon. Trump himself stated, “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting. I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”

When asked about the change, Trump cited ongoing developments in the war and promised more information in the following days.

Concurrently, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also canceled a preliminary meeting to set up the Budapest summit after their recent phone conversation.

Trump had been counting on establishing personal rapport with Putin to facilitate a resolution to the Ukraine crisis, but he has faced repeated frustrations with the Russian leader.

Ukrainian officials reported that Zelensky’s discussions with Trump at the White House were challenging. The officials voiced concerns that diplomatic initiatives aimed at resolving the conflict have been “dragged out” and felt like “going in circles.”

While Trump urged both Russia and Ukraine to cease hostilities at existing front lines, there was no public indication that he demanded territory concessions from Ukraine.

Reports indicate that Trump did pressure Zelensky to withdraw from areas under Ukrainian control, aligning with one of Putin’s main conditions. Zelensky left the meeting without securing long-range Tomahawk missiles that he had requested from Trump.

Ukraine considers the Donbas region integral to its territory and has consistently rejected proposals to surrender it.

The Kremlin has not announced a new date for another meeting between Trump and Putin, following their unsuccessful talks in Alaska in August.