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Donald Trump has stated he did not wish to engage in a “wasted meeting” after plans for a face-to-face discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the conflict in Ukraine were suspended.
The US president indicated that a key obstacle remained Moscow’s unwillingness to cease hostilities along the existing front lines, according to remarks made at the White House on Tuesday.
Earlier, a White House official stated there were “no plans” for a Trump-Putin meeting “in the immediate future,” following Trump’s assertion on Thursday that the two leaders would hold talks in Budapest within a fortnight.
Significant differences between US and Russian proposals for a peaceful resolution have become increasingly apparent this week, seemingly diminishing the prospect of a summit.
Trump and Putin last convened in Alaska in August, during a hastily arranged summit that yielded no tangible outcomes.
The White House’s decision to postpone plans for a second Trump-Putin meeting may be interpreted as an effort to avert a recurrence of a similar unproductive scenario.
“I guess the Russians wanted too much and it became evident for the Americans that there will be no deal for Trump in Budapest,” a senior European diplomat told Reuters.
A preparatory discussion between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was initially scheduled for this week; however, the White House reported that the two had a “productive” call and that a meeting was no longer deemed “necessary.”
On Monday, Trump endorsed a ceasefire proposal, supported by Kyiv and European leaders, to freeze the conflict along the current front lines.
“Let it be cut the way it is,” he said. “I said: cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.”
Russia has consistently resisted the notion of freezing the current line of contact.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that this idea had been repeatedly presented to the Russians, but “the consistency of Russia’s position doesn’t change” – referring to Moscow’s insistence on the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the contested eastern regions.
Moscow is only interested in a “long-term, sustainable peace,” Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, suggesting that freezing the front lines would merely constitute a temporary ceasefire.
The “root causes of the conflict” needed to be addressed, Lavrov stated, employing Kremlin terminology for a series of maximalist demands that include the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas, as well as the demilitarization of Ukraine – a proposal unacceptable to Kyiv and its European partners.
European leaders, in conjunction with President Zelensky, released a statement earlier on Tuesday, asserting that any discussions regarding the termination of the war in Ukraine should commence with a freeze of the current front lines and accused Russia of not being “serious” about pursuing peace.
Zelensky stated that discussions concerning the front line represented the “beginning of diplomacy,” which Russia was purportedly attempting to evade.
He added that the only topic that could compel Moscow to “pay attention” was the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Trump had engaged in discussions regarding a summit in the Hungarian capital with Putin via telephone, one day prior to meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
Some reports indicated that those discussions had been contentious, with sources suggesting that Trump had urged Zelensky to cede substantial areas of territory in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as the Donbas, as part of an agreement with Russia.
However, Zelensky has consistently maintained that Ukraine cannot relinquish the portions of the Donbas it still controls, on the grounds that Russia could subsequently utilize the area as a staging ground for further offensives.
Putin’s unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday followed speculation that the US was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv that could potentially strike deep into Russia.
Zelensky said it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to engage in discussion.
Despite coming away from the White House empty-handed, he added that the talk about the missiles had turned out to be a “strong investment in diplomacy”.
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