U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he has postponed indefinitely a meeting that was scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks. He attributed the delay to not wanting to waste time on discussions he considers “pointless.”
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Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said:
"I don’t want an empty meeting. I don’t want to waste time, so we’ll see what happens."
The summit had been planned to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, with both leaders previously confirming the meeting in the coming weeks.
Simultaneously, Trump reportedly pressured Ukraine to relinquish control of the Donbas region in exchange for peace, according to a senior Ukrainian official cited by AFP.
When questioned by journalists, Trump reiterated that he did not want a “pointless” meeting with Putin and declined to elaborate further on the reasons for the postponement.
Additionally, a preparatory meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of the Budapest summit was also canceled.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin confirmed that no new date has been set for the Trump-Putin meeting.
Despite describing his personal relationship with Putin as good, Trump has reportedly become increasingly frustrated with the Russian president in recent months.
