Trump Cancels Planned Meeting with Putin, Cites Lack of Progress on Russia Talks
Washington: US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he has cancelled his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing a lack of meaningful progress in diplomatic efforts between the two nations.
“We cancelled the meeting with President Putin,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It just didn’t feel right to me. It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it, but we’ll do it in the future.”
The US President had earlier said he would meet Putin in Budapest for talks, following a recent phone call between the two leaders. However, on Tuesday, Trump dismissed the idea, saying such a meeting would be “a waste of time.”
Expressing frustration over stalled negotiations, Trump remarked, “Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”
The cancellation came as the White House rolled out new sanctions on Russian oil exports, marking Trump’s first punitive action against Moscow in his second term. The sanctions target Russia’s two largest oil firms — Rosneft and Lukoil — and their subsidiaries, as part of Washington’s effort to pressure the Kremlin over its ongoing war in Ukraine.
“These are tremendous sanctions — very big — against their two big oil companies,” Trump said during his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We hope that they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled.”
He reiterated his hope for peace, saying, “It’s time to make a deal. He’s fighting a war. It’s two very competent sides, and that’s the way war is — you never know — but it’s time.”
Officials said the decision to cancel the meeting followed a phone call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday.
Just last week, Trump had described his two-and-a-half-hour phone call with Putin as having made “great progress.” A day later, he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, calling the interaction “very interesting and cordial.”
“The meeting with President Zelensky was very cordial,” Trump later posted on Truth Social. “I told him — as I told President Putin — it’s time to stop the killing and make a DEAL!”
He also suggested that both leaders should “stop where they are” and “claim victory.”
After brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, Trump has turned his focus to ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, intensifying his push for negotiations. His previous high-profile summit with Putin, held in Alaska in August, had ended without any agreement.
