Trump Shelves Putin Meeting, Cites ‘Waste of Time’ Concern

Trump Shelves Putin Meeting, Cites ‘Waste of Time’ Concern

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had cancelled plans for a summit in Budapest with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he did not want a “wasted” meeting on the Ukraine war.

The decision marked a reversal just days after Trump announced he would meet Putin in the Hungarian capital within two weeks, following what he described as a productive phone call aimed at ending the conflict.

According to a senior Ukrainian official, Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during tense talks in Washington last Friday to concede the eastern Donbas region in exchange for peace.

A White House official later confirmed there were “no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future,” despite earlier announcements.

“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”

Asked what had changed his mind, Trump said, “A lot of things are happening on the war front. We’ll notify you over the next two days about what we’re doing.”

A separate meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — meant to prepare for the Budapest summit — was also called off, officials confirmed.

Trump has often relied on his personal rapport with Putin to broker a peace deal but has reportedly grown frustrated by Moscow’s stance. Ukraine and its European allies, meanwhile, are struggling to navigate his unpredictable diplomacy.

Zelensky’s meeting with Trump last week was “not easy,” said the Ukrainian official, describing ongoing diplomatic efforts as “dragged out” and “going in circles.”

Trump publicly urged both Moscow and Kyiv to halt fighting along their current front lines but made no direct mention of territorial concessions. However, the Ukrainian official confirmed Trump privately suggested Kyiv withdraw from areas still under its control — a key demand from Moscow.

Zelensky left Washington without securing long-range Tomahawk missiles and faced renewed pressure to accept a compromise deal. Ukraine, however, has repeatedly insisted that the Donbas — covering the eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions — is an inseparable part of its territory.

The Kremlin said Tuesday there was no “precise” date for a new Trump–Putin meeting, noting their last talks in Alaska in August ended without progress.

European leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Britain’s Keir Starmer, reiterated their opposition to Ukraine ceding territory, stressing that Russia was “not serious about peace.”

“We strongly support President Trump’s position that fighting should stop immediately and that the current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations,” they said in a joint statement.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was scheduled to meet Trump in Washington on Tuesday, ahead of a Brussels summit of EU leaders later this week, followed by a gathering in London to coordinate further support for Ukraine.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calling it a “special military operation.” Moscow now controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, with much of it devastated by war and tens of thousands killed.