Trump’s meeting with Putin in Budapest cancelled | World | News
Donald Trump will no longer meet Vladimir Putin in Hungary after a phone call between negotiators “turned sour”. An anonymous offical confirmed the meeting was off after a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The US president has not yet commented publicly about the change of plans, while Kremlin pokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that “preparation is needed, serious preparation” before a meeting.
A White House offical said there are “no plans” for a meeting between the two presidents “in the immediate future”, but did not give any more information. Mr Trump announced the now cancelled meeting with Putin last Thursday, “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ war, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end”.
The announcement came after a phone call with Putin, which he hailed as “very productive”.
Mr Trump wrote on Turth Social: “I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and it was a very productive one.
“President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East, something that, he said, has been dreamed of for centuries.”
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky has been trying to strengthen Ukraine’s position with long-range Tomahawk missiles from the US, although Mr Trump has not confirmed whether he would provide them.
The Ukrainian president said: “We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace.”
He and called Mr Trump last week when it looked like Tomahawk missiles were a possibility. However, “as soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,” he said.
