Trump says he won’t hold “wasted meeting” with Putin

US President Donald Trump has said he did not want a “wasted meeting” after plans for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine were put on hold.

Speaking at the White House on October 22, Trump explained that the main obstacle remained Moscow’s refusal to halt fighting along the current front line.

The president’s remarks followed an earlier statement from a White House official who said there were “no plans” for a Trump-Putin meeting “in the immediate future.” This came after Trump had announced last Thursday that he and Putin would meet in Budapest within two weeks.

However, widening differences between the US and Russian peace proposals appeared to have erased any hope for the summit.

Trump and Putin last met in Alaska in August at a hastily arranged summit that produced no tangible results. The White House’s decision to postpone a second meeting was therefore seen as an attempt to avoid another unproductive encounter.

“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 reporters.

A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had been scheduled for this week, but the White House later announced that the two had already held a “productive” phone call and that an in-person meeting was no longer “necessary.”

On Monday, Trump endorsed a ceasefire proposal supported by Kyiv and European leaders that would freeze the conflict along the current battle line.

“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, however, has repeatedly rejected the idea of freezing the front line, insisting that such an arrangement would be unacceptable.

In addition, Trump dismissed a Wall Street Journal article claiming that Washington had authorised Ukraine to launch long-range strikes on Russian territory, calling it false.

“The Wall Street Journal story on the U.S.A.’s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long-range missiles deep into Russia is FAKE NEWS! The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The president stressed that the United States was not involved with the deployment of long-range missiles and had no role in how Ukraine uses them.

By Tamilla Hasanova