A planned summit between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin was put on hold on Tuesday, as Moscow’s rejection of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine cast a cloud over attempts at negotiations.
A senior White House official said “there are no plans for president Trump to meet with president Putin in the immediate future” after secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had a “productive call” but opted against an in-person meeting.
Trump had announced last week that he and Putin would meet soon in Hungary to try to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. But Putin has been unwilling to consider concessions. Moscow has long demanded that Ukraine agree to cede more territory before any ceasefire.
European leaders called on Washington on Tuesday to hold firm in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, with present battle lines to serve as the basis for any future talks. Moscow has long demanded that Ukraine agree to cede more territory before any ceasefire.
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Mr Trump, who last week spoke by phone to Mr Putin and met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had said he aimed to hold a summit with the Russian leader in the Hungarian capital Budapest within two weeks in a push to end the war.
But summit preparations hit a snag, with the sides postponing a preparatory meeting between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, expected to take place in Budapest on Thursday.
Mr Lavrov and Mr Rubio spoke by phone on Monday. Mr Lavrov’s deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said on Tuesday it was premature to speak about the timing of any face-to-face meeting between them.
Neither side has publicly abandoned plans for Mr Trump to meet Mr Putin.
Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, was in Washington on Tuesday, where he posted on Facebook: “We have some serious days ahead.”
But two senior European diplomats said the postponement of the Rubio-Lavrov meeting was a sign the US could be reluctant to go ahead with a Trump-Putin summit unless Moscow yields from its demands.
“I guess the Russians wanted too much and it became evident for the Americans that there will be no deal for Trump in Budapest,” said one.
The Russians “haven’t at all changed their position, and are not agreeing to ‘stop where they are’,” said the second diplomat. “And I assume Lavrov gave the same spiel, and Rubio was like: ‘See you later.’”
Ukraine’s European allies have been concerned that Mr Trump could meet Mr Putin for a second time without getting any serious concessions from the Russian leader, after Mr Putin rebuffed Mr Trump’s call for a ceasefire at a summit in Alaska in August.
In a statement on Tuesday, the leaders of European powers including Britain, France, Germany and the EU, said they “strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations”.
Mr Trump has often changed his emphasis in public when speaking about Ukraine. But last Friday after his meeting with Mr Zelenskiy at the White House he explicitly endorsed the position that a ceasefire should start with forces at their present positions.
Reuters and other news organisations reported that Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr Zelenskiy behind closed doors was contentious, with the US president repeatedly using profanity and pushing Mr Zelenskiy to accept some Russian demands.
But Mr Zelenskiy has painted the meeting as a success because it ended with Mr Trump publicly backing a ceasefire at the present lines – Kyiv’s longstanding position.
European leaders are due to meet this week with Mr Zelenskiy as their guest, first at an EU summit and then at a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” countries discussing a security force to guarantee a postwar settlement in Ukraine. Russia rejects such an international security force.
The choice of Budapest as a venue for a Putin-Trump meeting is contentious within the EU, where Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban is an outlier as one of the few leaders to maintain warm relations with Russia.
Any trip to Budapest would require Mr Putin to fly through the airspace of other EU countries. Poland said on Tuesday it could force Mr Putin’s plane down and arrest him on an international warrant if he flies over its territory, but Bulgaria said Mr Putin could use its airspace to reach the meeting. – Reuters
