US cancels Trump-Putin Budapest meeting over Russia's 'maximalist' demands

The meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was announced earlier this month, with an agenda to discuss ways to end Russia's war in Ukraine

The United States has cancelled President Donald Trump's planned meeting in Budapest with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, citing the latter's "maximalist demands" to end the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

 

The meeting was announced earlier this month with an agenda to discuss ways to end Russia's war in Ukraine. However, ahead of the meeting, the Russian foreign ministry sent a memo reiterating its demands, which include territorial claims and a guarantee that Ukraine will not be included in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

 

Putin has labelled these demands as the “root causes” of his invasion of parts of Ukraine.

 

According to the report, the memo was followed by a tense call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during which they discussed the prospects of a meeting. Following the call, Rubio informed Trump that Moscow showed no willingness to negotiate. 

 

Last week, Trump also said that his plan for a swift meeting with Putin had been put on hold because he did not want it to be a waste of time, reported the Associated Press. "I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to have a waste of time -- so we'll see what happens," Trump said.

 

Trump and Putin last met in Alaska in August, but the meeting failed to revive Trump’s stalled efforts to end the war that began in February 2022.

 

Although peace efforts have been underway for some time, Moscow has accused Ukraine of delaying negotiations and failing to follow through on proposals to establish working groups to explore potential deal terms. Similarly, Ukraine has reportedly claimed that Moscow is not negotiating in good faith and has been presenting demands that essentially amount to a call for surrender.