Donald Trump Shelves Planned Putin Meeting Amid Deadlock Over Ukraine Peace Talks
Reports of an imminent summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin appear to have been overstated. Just days after Trump publicly stated that he would meet the Russian leader in Budapest “within two weeks or so,” the White House has now confirmed that those plans are suspended indefinitely.
A preparatory meeting between U.S. and Russian foreign ministers has also been canceled, signaling that prospects for progress on peace negotiations over the war in Ukraine have once again stalled.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump admitted his reluctance to pursue a meeting that lacked purpose. “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” he said. “I don’t want to have a waste of time, so we’ll see what happens.”
The abrupt change highlights the deepening divide between Washington and Moscow as both sides struggle to find common ground on how to end a conflict now nearing its fourth year.
Trump’s Renewed Focus on Ending the Ukraine War
The uncertainty surrounding the Trump-Putin summit comes just weeks after the U.S. president celebrated a rare diplomatic victory—a ceasefire and hostage-release deal in Gaza. Encouraged by that breakthrough, Trump reportedly urged his lead negotiator, Steve Witkoff, to shift attention toward securing peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“We have to get Russia done,” Trump told Witkoff during a stop in Egypt last week.
However, replicating the conditions that led to success in the Middle East has proven difficult. The dynamics of the Ukraine war are vastly different, with neither side showing willingness to compromise and with far fewer diplomatic levers available to Washington.
Limited Leverage and Complex Power Dynamics
Witkoff’s earlier success in Gaza reportedly hinged on a mix of pressure tactics and regional leverage. Israel’s controversial decision to target Hamas negotiators in Qatar, though widely criticized, created an opening for Trump to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toward a deal.
Trump’s longstanding ties to Israel—including his decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem during his first term and his support for Israeli military operations—gave him influence few other American presidents have held. He is, by some accounts, even more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu himself.
By contrast, in the Ukraine conflict, Trump’s leverage is limited. Over the past nine months, he has oscillated between pressuring Putin and pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—without much success on either front.
He has threatened new sanctions against Russian energy exports and hinted at supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles. Yet he has also shown caution, acknowledging that such actions could further destabilize the global economy or escalate the war.
At times, Trump has publicly criticized Zelensky, even pausing intelligence-sharing and delaying arms shipments to Ukraine, before backing down under pressure from European allies alarmed by the potential fallout.
Face-to-Face Diplomacy Yields Little Progress
Trump frequently boasts of his ability to strike deals through direct, personal negotiation. However, his recent face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have yielded no tangible progress toward peace.
Their last encounter, a hastily arranged summit in Alaska in August, ended without concrete results. Now, analysts suggest that Putin may be exploiting Trump’s faith in “deal-making diplomacy” to stall for time and gain political advantage.
In July, for instance, Putin agreed to the Alaska meeting just as the U.S. Congress was preparing to pass a new sanctions package targeting Moscow. That legislation was quietly delayed soon after.
Then, last week, as Washington debated whether to send Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv, Putin called Trump. Within hours, Trump announced the possibility of a new summit in Budapest.
The next day, Trump hosted Zelensky at the White House—but the meeting ended without any breakthroughs.
Growing Frustration and Mixed Messages
Despite speculation that Putin was manipulating him, Trump denied being misled. “You know, I’ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well,” he told reporters.
Yet Ukrainian officials viewed the timing differently. Zelensky later remarked, “As soon as the issue of long-range weapons became less likely for us, Russia almost immediately became less interested in diplomacy.”
The sequence of events underscored a pattern: Trump alternates between offering Ukraine potential military aid and seeking direct concessions to Russia. Reports suggest that, behind closed doors, Trump pressured Zelensky to consider surrendering parts of the Donbas region—territories in eastern Ukraine that remain fiercely contested.
However, Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine cannot cede those areas, warning that doing so would only invite future Russian aggression.
Trump’s Shifting Strategy and the Ceasefire Debate
In recent weeks, Trump has softened his tone, advocating for a ceasefire that would freeze the conflict along existing battle lines. “Let it be cut the way it is,” he said. “Stop fighting, stop killing people, go home.”
Russia, however, has rejected any deal that would formalize the current front line. Moscow’s position remains that Ukraine must withdraw from all of the Donbas region and recognize full Russian sovereignty over territories it currently controls.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Moscow seeks a “long-term, sustainable peace,” not a temporary truce. The Kremlin has also insisted that Western support for Ukraine—including new long-range weapons—undermines any genuine diplomatic effort.
European leaders, meanwhile, have aligned with Kyiv, saying that a ceasefire should be the starting point for negotiations, not an end goal. In a joint statement with Zelensky, they accused Moscow of being “not serious” about peace talks.
From Bold Promises to Harsh Realities
On the campaign trail last year, Trump repeatedly promised that he could end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” if elected. But as he now navigates the complexities of international diplomacy, he has backed away from that claim.
Ending the war, he admitted recently, is “harder than expected.” It’s a rare acknowledgment of the limits of his power—and of the deep divisions between global players whose interests in Ukraine are anything but aligned.
For Trump, shelving the planned Budapest summit may be an attempt to regain control of the narrative after a string of diplomatic disappointments. For Ukraine and its allies, it’s another reminder that Washington’s leadership remains unpredictable at a time when stability is urgently needed.