President Donald Trump’s plan to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on hold, according to a U.S. official.
Last Thursday, Trump told reporters he would be meeting with Putin in Budapest in two weeks to talk about resolving the war in Ukraine.
The decision to put the plan on hold was made following a call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
Trump and Putin met in August in Alaska however Putin rejected the U.S. offer of sanctions relief for a ceasefire, insisting the war would end only if Ukraine capitulated and ceded more territory in the Donbas. He then went on to deliver a rambling historical discursion spanning medieval figures that he often cites to support his claim that Ukraine and Russia are one nation.
Moscow’s rejection of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine seems to be the reson behind the hold, diplomats said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, European leaders have called Washington to hold firm in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders on Tuesday accused Putin of stalling for time in diplomatic efforts to bring his invasion of Ukraine to an end and opposed any move to make Kyiv surrender land captured by Russian forces in return for peace.
In a joint statement, eight European leaders as well as senior European Union officials said they intend to go ahead with plans to use Moscow’s billions of dollars (euros) of frozen assets abroad to help Kyiv win the war, despite some misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step.
The statement expressed support for Trump’s peace efforts in Ukraine.
Zelensky noted that Putin returned to the negotiation table, calling Trump last week after the American president said he might supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles. But “as soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,” Zelensky said Tuesday in a Telegram post.
“We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,” he said.
