US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he did not want a “wasted meeting” with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, expressing his frustration with previous fruitless attempts at resolving the Ukraine war.Reacting to his Budapest summit with Putin being shelved, he said, “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting. I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”
Just days ago, Trump had indicated he would meet Putin within two weeks while pressuring Ukraine to cede the eastern Donbas region in exchange for peace. However, the Kremlin reportedly continued to insist on all its demands despite a recent call with Trump, prompting the White House to announce that no immediate meeting was planned.The Kremlin confirmed there is no set date for a new Trump-Putin meeting, following earlier talks in Alaska in August that failed to produce a breakthrough on Ukraine.Trump has shown signs of frustration with Putin despite claiming a personal rapport, but his stance appeared to shift toward Moscow after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week. During the “tense” discussions, Trump reportedly pressured Zelensky to cede the eastern Donbas region, one of Putin’s key demands, while publicly calling for an end to the war at the current battle lines. Ukrainian officials described the talks as difficult and said diplomatic efforts felt “dragged out” and cyclical.
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