Trump Halts Planned Budapest Summit with Putin Amid Stalled Ukraine Peace Efforts

US President Donald Trump has put plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest on hold, as diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine have hit yet another impasse.

Trump had recently stated that he would meet Putin within a fortnight while simultaneously pressuring Kyiv to relinquish control of the Donbas region in exchange for peace, according to a senior Ukrainian official speaking to AFP.

However, in a new reversal, Trump has paused his peace initiative after reports that the Kremlin remains unmoved on its demands, despite his phone call with Putin last week.

“There are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future,”
— White House official (anonymously to AFP)

The White House also confirmed that a planned meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, intended to finalise arrangements for the Budapest summit, has been cancelled.

“An additional in-person meeting between the Secretary and Foreign Minister is not necessary,”
— White House statement, adding that the phone call between the two was nonetheless “productive”.

The Kremlin echoed this sentiment, saying on Tuesday that there was no “precise” date for any new Trump–Putin talks, following their August meeting in Alaska, which yielded no major progress on Ukraine.

Trump’s tone towards Putin has grown increasingly impatient despite his oft-claimed “personal chemistry” with the Russian leader. Yet, after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week, Trump appeared to shift back towards Moscow’s position.

During the “tense” talks on Friday, Trump allegedly urged Zelensky to cede Donbas in order to facilitate a peace deal — a claim confirmed by a senior Ukrainian official.

The same Ukrainian source lamented that diplomatic efforts to end the conflict now feel “dragged out” and “going in circles”.

Trump had earlier called for both Moscow and Kyiv to freeze the conflict along existing battle lines, without publicly suggesting territorial losses for Ukraine.
However, when questioned if Trump privately urged Kyiv to withdraw from certain territories still under its control, the Ukrainian official confirmed: “Yes, that’s true.”

Zelensky’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles was denied, further souring the encounter.

European leaders swiftly dismissed the notion of Ukraine surrendering territory, instead backing an immediate cessation of hostilities along the current line of contact.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Britain’s Keir Starmer expressed continued scepticism towards Moscow’s intentions:

“We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”

Zelensky has insisted that no territorial concessions will be made and is pushing to attend any future Trump–Putin summit, having been excluded from the Alaska meeting.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, launched under the guise of a “special military operation”, Moscow has seized control of around 20% of Ukrainian territory — much of it left devastated by heavy fighting.

On Tuesday, a Russian drone strike on Novgorod-Siverskyi, in Ukraine’s northern Chernigiv region, killed four people, according to the State Emergency Service.

Despite repeated international mediation attempts, both Moscow and Kyiv remain entrenched — and the once-hyped Budapest Summit now stands as another casualty of stalled diplomacy.