Trump says he did not want ‘wasted meeting’ after plan for Putin talks shelved
Donald Trump said he did not want a “wasted meeting” after plans to meet face-to-face with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine were put on hold.
Moscow’s refusal to stop fighting on the current front line remains a major sticking point, the US president said in a speech at the White House on Tuesday.
before a After Trump said on Thursday that the two would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks, a White House official said there were “no plans” for a Trump-Putin meeting “in the near future.”
The fundamental differences between the US and Russian peace proposals have become increasingly clear this week, and the chances of a summit appear to be diminishing.
Trump and Putin last met in August during a hastily held summit in Alaska, which yielded no concrete results.
The White House’s decision to shelve plans for a second Trump-Putin meeting could be seen as an attempt to avoid a similar scenario.
“I think the Russians were asking too much, and it became clear to the Americans that a deal could not be made with Trump in Budapest,” a senior European diplomat told Reuters.
A preparatory meeting was planned to be held this week between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but the White House said that the two had a “productive” meeting and that the meeting was no longer “necessary”.
On Monday, Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal backed by Kiev and European leaders to freeze fighting on the current frontline.
“Let it be cut as it is,” he said. “I said: Cut the battle line and stop. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.”
Russia has repeatedly opposed freezing the existing line of contact.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the idea had been repeatedly presented to the Russians, but “the consistency of Russia’s position has not changed,” referring to Moscow’s insistence on the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the embattled eastern regions.
Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was only interested in “long-term, sustainable peace”, implying that freezing the front line would only mean a temporary ceasefire.
Lavrov said the “root causes of the conflict” needed to be addressed, briefly articulating a series of maximalist demands from the Kremlin that included recognition of full Russian sovereignty over Donbas and demilitarization of Ukraine, which is a non-starting point for Kiev and its European partners.
European leaders issued a statement early Tuesday with Zelensky saying any talks to end the war in Ukraine must start with freezing the current front line and accusing Russia of not being “serious” about peace.
Zelensky said that discussions on the front line were “the beginning of diplomacy” and that Russia was doing everything to avoid it.
He added that the only issue that could make Moscow “pay attention” was the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Trump had discussed a summit with Putin on the phone in the Hungarian capital, a day before meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
Some reports suggested that these talks were a “shouting match,” while sources suggested that Trump forced Zelensky to give up large swathes of territory in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (collectively known as Donbas) as part of a deal with Russia.
But Zelensky has always said that Ukraine cannot give up the parts of Donbas it still holds on the grounds that Russia could later use the region as a springboard for other attacks.
Putin’s unscheduled meeting with Trump last Thursday followed speculation that the United States was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kiev that could potentially strike deep into Russia.
Zelensky said it was the Tomahawk issue that forced Russia to discuss it.
He added that despite returning from the White House empty-handed, the talk about missiles turned into “a strong investment in diplomacy.”
