Trump cancels Putin meeting: What it means for Ukraine peace
The US President Donald Trump has confirmed he cancelled the meeting planned with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, which was scheduled for this week.
The American leader stated, during a White House briefing, that he made this decision because he believed the discussions would not have yielded the desired results.
"I cancelled the meeting with President Putin. I didn't think it was right. I didn't feel we would get to where we needed to be. That's why I cancelled it. But we will do it in the future," Mr Trump said, according to CNN.
Asked if he still believes the Kremlin leader desires an end to the war against Ukraine, Mr Trump responded affirmatively.
"I believe they want peace. I believe both the Russian and Ukrainian presidents want peace. It is time for this war to end, which never would have started if I had been president," he declared.
However, the former president expressed his disappointment regarding the stalled pace of negotiations with Russia for ending the war.
"Every time I talk to Vladimir Putin we have good conversations, but nothing comes of them," Mr Trump said.
Just a day earlier, the US president declared that he would decide "in the next two days" whether to meet with Mr Putin, mentioning that he did not want a "useless meeting."
The US Treasury also announced new sanctions against Russian oil companies "Rosneft" and "Lukoil," citing the lack of a "real interest from Russia in a peace process."
According to the AFP agency, during the recent meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Mr Trump reportedly pressured the Ukrainian leader to accept relinquishing the Donbas region.
Following these developments, the previously announced meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also cancelled.
The Financial Times recently reported that, at the previous meeting in Alaska, Mr Putin allegedly rejected Washington's offer to relax sanctions in exchange for a ceasefire, demanding instead total control over Eastern Ukraine.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
