Trump-Putin summit in Budapest axed over Russia’s hardline stance on Ukraine

The decision reportedly stemmed from a tense call between the two nations’ chief diplomats

The U.S. has cancelled a planned Budapest summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, following Russia’s firm stance on hardline demands regarding Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The decision reportedly stemmed from a tense call between the two nations’ chief diplomats, sources told the FT. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the report, with no comment from the White House or Russian government officials following its publication.

The proposed meeting, scheduled for this month, was shelved after Moscow maintained its demands, notably that Ukraine surrender additional territory as a prerequisite for a ceasefire.

Trump has backed Ukraine’s call for an immediate ceasefire on current lines.

Days after Trump and Putin had agreed to meet in the Hungarian capital to discuss how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry sent a memo to Washington underlining the same demands to address what Putin calls the “root causes” of his invasion, which include territorial concessions, a steep reduction of Ukraine’s armed forces and guarantees it will never join Nato, the newspaper reported.

The U.S. then cancelled the summit following a call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after which Rubio told Trump that Moscow was showing no willingness to negotiate, the FT report added.

The meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was reportedly shelved after Moscow maintained its demands that Ukraine surrender additional territory (Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this month that while Ukraine is ready for peace talks, it will not withdraw its troops from additional territory first as Moscow demanded.

Zelensky claimed on Monday that Ukraine will work on a plan for a ceasefire with Russia “in the coming 10 days” – as Donald Trump rebuked Putin over the test-firing of a nuclear-powered missile.

The Ukrainian president urged Trump to go further in his support for Kyiv after Washington imposed tough sanctions on major Russian oil companies last week.

Zelensky said he welcomed the decision to hit Rosneft and Lukoil with sanctions, but said Putin would not be moved to the negotiating table without even more “pressure”.

“President Trump is concerned about escalation,” Zelensky told Axios. “But I think that if there are no negotiations, there will be an escalation anyway. I think that if Putin doesn’t stop, we need something to stop him. Sanctions is one such weapon, but we also need long-range missiles.”

“We speak not only about Tomahawks. The U.S. has a lot of similar things that doesn’t require much time for training. I think the way to work with Putin is only through pressure,” he added.