Meeting between US and Russian leaders ‘on hold,’ latest twist in Russia-Ukraine peace talks

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time,” the AP News reported on Wednesday. The US media report said it was the latest twist in Trump’s stop-and-go effort to resolve the war in Ukraine.

The decision to hold off on the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which the US president had announced last week, was made following a call Monday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to the AP News.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the timing of a possible summit remains undecided, stressing that "serious preparation" would be required before any meeting could take place, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The summit delay followed Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, where he ruled out a trilateral summit with Russia and Ukraine, citing deep tensions between Moscow and Kiev, per Xinhua.

European leaders called on Washington on Tuesday to hold firm in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, with present battle lines to serve as the basis for any future talks, Reuters reported.

NATO said Secretary General Mark Rutte travelled to Washington on Tuesday for talks with Trump that two sources familiar with the matter said would take place on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

A Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Rutte planned to present to Trump the European views on a ceasefire and any subsequent peace negotiations, per Reuters.

However, the Russian media TASS, citing Kirill Dmitriev, special presidential representative for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said on Wednesday that the preparations for the Russia-US summit are underway.

The Kremlin and the White House confirmed that the talks would take place in the Hungarian capital after Putin and Trump spoke by phone last Thursday.

When commenting on the latest conversation between Rubio and Lavrov, an unnamed White House official told NBC News that they had a productive call, “therefore, an additional-in-person meeting between the secretary and foreign minister is not necessary, and there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future,” the US media reported on Wednesday.

On Sunday, after both a call last week with Putin and then a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, Trump said he supported the immediate halt to fighting as called for by Kiev and its European allies, NBC News said.

For now, both sides should “stop at the battle line — go home, stop fighting, stop killing people,” he told reporters on Air Force One. “They can negotiate something later on down the line,” according to the US media report.

The US President reversed his long-held position in September that Ukraine would have to give up land and suggested it could win back all the territory it has lost to Russia, the AP News said.

But after a phone call with Putin last week and a subsequent meeting with Zelensky on Friday, Trump shifted his position again and called on Kiev and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end the war, per the US media report.