A summit in Budapest, Hungary, where U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were supposed to meet to discuss Ukraine’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine was called off after a phone conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to an Associated Press report.
A US official told the news agency that there would be no meeting between the two leaders in the “immediate future”.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said there should be no urgency for a meeting between the two leaders because “preparation, serious preparation, is necessary.”
In September, the US president reversed his position that Ukraine would have to cede territory to Russia and suggested that Kiev could regain all the territory it had lost to Russia. But after a phone call with Putin last week and a subsequent meeting with Zelensky on Friday, Trump changed his stance again, urging the two countries to “stop where they are” in the more than three-year war.
Where does Europe stand?
Meanwhile, Zelensky and other European leaders accused Putin of suspending the talks to continue his “invasion”. They also oppose Trump’s idea that Ukraine would cede parts of its territory to Russia in order for the ceasefire to take effect.
They said they “remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force”.
Eight leaders from across Europe, along with senior European Union officials, issued a joint statement saying they were willing to go ahead with plans to use frozen Russian assets in their region to help Kiev fight the war. However, there are questions of legality surrounding such a move.
They are also trying to keep Trump on their side, saying: “We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately and that the current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations,” adding: “We all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction.
The EU is holding a summit in Brussels on Thursday, where they will discuss further sanctions against Russia.
Could tomahawks have been peacemakers?
Zelenskyy believes Putin has agreed to return to the negotiating table and called Trump last week as the possibility of the US supplying Russia with Tomahawk missiles emerged.
“As soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to abandon diplomacy and postpone dialogue,” the Ukrainian president said in a post on Telegram.
