Donald Trump explained the postponement this Tuesday, October 21 sine die At the end of his meeting with Vladimir Putin he stated that he did not want talks “in vain”, while the two leaders were scheduled to meet in Budapest to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
The American president recently announced that he would meet with his Russian counterpart over the next two weeks. At the same time, he was pressuring Ukraine to give up the eastern region of Donbass in exchange for peace, a senior Ukrainian official revealed to AFP.
Questioned by the press at the White House, Donald Trump declared this Tuesday that he did not want a “free meeting” with Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t want to waste time, so we’ll see what happens,” he added, without giving details about the reason for this postponement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also canceled a planned meeting to organize the Budapest meeting, which they had discussed by phone the day before.
The Kremlin said earlier on Tuesday that there was no “precise” date for a new meeting between Trump and Putin. The US president has shown growing frustration with President Putin in recent months, despite what he describes as a good personal understanding between them.
“It’s time to stop the killings”
After meeting Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday – the day after a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin – the US president appeared to have returned to Moscow’s side.
He tried to persuade his Ukrainian counterpart to cede the disputed Donbass province in eastern Ukraine during “tense” talks on Friday, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.
The source added that talks with Trump “had not been easy” and that diplomatic efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine seemed to be “going around in circles.”
The Ukrainian leader hoped to take advantage of the US president’s growing frustration over his Russian counterpart’s reluctance to accept a ceasefire. But he left empty-handed after Donald Trump rejected his request for long-range Tomahawk missiles and urged him to reach a deal.
Following his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump declared on social media that their conversations had been “very interesting and cordial.” “But I told him, as I had also strongly suggested to President Putin, that it was time to stop the killings and reach an AGREEMENT!” the White House tenant also wrote.
The American president then considered that it was necessary for any negotiations to start from the current situation on the front line to finally stop “the massacres” in Ukraine.
Mark Rutte travels to Washington
Several European leaders, including those of France, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as Volodymyr Zelensky, declared on Tuesday “they strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting must cease immediately” and considered that “the current line of contact must serve as a basis for negotiations.”
But, they immediately added, “we remain committed to the principle that international borders should not be changed by force.” Possible territorial concessions in Ukraine “can only be negotiated” by its president, Emmanuel Macron insisted in Ljubljana on Tuesday.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will travel to Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will meet with Donald Trump, to discuss “several issues related to NATO’s support for Ukraine and US-led efforts toward lasting peace,” according to his team.
Meeting of the “coalition of the willing” planned
Europeans will meet in Brussels on Thursday – with the exception of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer – for a summit at which they hope to agree on lasting financial support for Ukraine.
A meeting of the “coalition of the willing”, which gathers support from kyiv, is scheduled for Friday.
For the head of European foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, there is “broad support” within the European Union for the proposal to mobilize frozen Russian assets to grant kyiv a loan of 140 billion euros.
On the ground, an attack with Russian drones against a town in the Chernihiv region, in northern Ukraine, left four dead this Tuesday, according to emergency services.
Source: BFM TV
