Trump doesn’t want ‘wasted meeting’ with Putin as he confirms talks on Ukraine war are off for now
The decision to postpone the meeting, which Trump announced last week in Budapest, Hungary, was taken after the meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday.
“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Trump said. “I don’t want to waste my time, so we’ll see what happens.”
Lavrov made it clear in public statements on Tuesday that Russia was against an immediate ceasefire. Trump, meanwhile, has been shifting his stance on key issues in the war all year, including whether a ceasefire will precede long-term peace talks and whether Ukraine can regain territory seized by Russia during nearly four years of conflict.
Trump’s hesitation to meet with Putin will likely come as a relief to European leaders who have accused Putin of wasting time on diplomacy while trying to gain ground on the battlefield.
Leaders including the British prime minister, the French president and the German chancellor have said they oppose any pressure for Ukraine to surrender territory seized by Russian forces in exchange for peace, as Trump recently suggested. They also plan to move forward with plans to use billions of dollars of frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s war effort, despite some doubts about the legality and consequences of such a step. The presidents of the United States and Russia last met in 2015. But the encounter did not advance Trump’s failed attempts to end the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Kremlin also appears to be in no rush to bring Trump and Putin back together. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that “there needs to be preparations, serious preparations” ahead of the meeting.
Trump claimed that decisions regarding the meeting would be made in the coming days.
What does Ukraine want from the USA?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to strengthen Ukraine’s position by seeking long-range Tomahawk missiles from the United States, but Trump is chattering about whether he can provide them.
“We must end this war and only pressure will lead to peace,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post on Tuesday.
He noted that Putin has returned to diplomacy and called Trump last week when Tomahawk missiles were considered possible. However, Zelenskyy said, “As soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians started to abandon diplomacy and postpone the dialogue.”
On Wednesday, Trump is expected to meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House. The military alliance is coordinating the shipment of weapons to Ukraine, many of which were purchased from the United States by Canada and European countries.
The meeting of the Coalition of Volunteers, consisting of 35 countries supporting Ukraine, will be held in London on Friday.How has Trump’s attitude towards the war changed?
Trump initially focused on pressuring Ukraine to make concessions, but later became frustrated with Putin’s intransigence. Trump often complains that he thinks his good relationship with his Russian counterpart will make it easier to end the war.
Last month, Trump reversed his long-held position that Ukraine would have to give up territory and suggested it could regain all of the territory it lost to Russia. But after a phone call with Putin last week and a subsequent meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday, Trump changed his position again and called on Kiev and Moscow to “stand where they are” and end the war.
On Sunday, Trump said Ukraine should be “cut off,” leaving most of the industrial Donbas region in eastern Ukraine in Russian hands.
Trump said Monday that he thought it was possible for Ukraine to ultimately defeat Russia, but he now doubts that will happen.
Ukrainian and European leaders try to keep Trump on their side
“We strongly support President Trump’s position that hostilities should cease immediately and the current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations,” the leaders’ statement said. The statement was included. “We all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction.”
Lavrov made clear on Tuesday that Russia was against a ceasefire, Russian state news agencies reported. He told reporters in Moscow that this would violate the agreement the two presidents agreed to in Alaska. Trump hoped Russia would stop the war but was overruled by Putin, who wanted a comprehensive solution to end the war.
Russia occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine, but dividing their country in exchange for peace is unacceptable to Kiev officials.
Additionally, Ukrainian and European officials fear that a frozen conflict on the current frontline could worsen as Ukraine’s occupied regions offer Moscow a springboard for new future attacks.
The statement by the leaders of Ukraine, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Denmark and EU officials came early as Zelenskyy said on Monday it would be a “very active week in diplomacy”.
More international economic sanctions against Russia are expected to be discussed at the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Tuesday’s statement said, “We must increase the pressure on the Russian economy and defense industry until Putin is ready to make peace.”
