U.S. President Donald Trump has suspended plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, saying he did not want to hold a “wasted” summit amid continuing uncertainty over the Ukraine war.
The decision came just days after Trump announced the meeting, which was expected to take place within two weeks following what he described as a “productive” phone call with Putin about ending the conflict.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the planned talks were on hold. “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,” he said. He added that “a lot of things are happening on the war front,” and further announcements would come “in the next two days.”
A White House official later confirmed that “there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future,” despite the earlier announcement of a Budapest summit.
The move followed tense discussions in Washington last Friday between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to a senior Ukrainian official, Trump pressured Zelensky to cede the eastern Donbas region to Russia in exchange for peace — a proposal Ukraine has repeatedly rejected.
The talks reportedly ended without progress after Trump refused Zelensky’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles and instead urged him to accept a ceasefire along current battle lines.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also canceled a scheduled meeting meant to prepare for the summit, the White House said.
The Kremlin confirmed there was no “precise” date for a future Trump-Putin meeting, noting that their last encounter in Alaska in August ended without a breakthrough.
European leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Britain’s Keir Starmer, issued a joint statement rejecting any deal that would see Ukraine give up territory. They expressed support for an immediate halt to fighting along current front lines but warned that “Russia is not serious about peace.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022 and has since left tens of thousands dead, with Moscow occupying roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, much of it devastated by the war.
