The United States canceled a planned summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest after Moscow sent Washington a memo restating hard-line demands on Ukraine, according to a UK media report.
The cancellation followed a tense phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Afterward, Rubio told Trump that Russia was showing no willingness to negotiate. "Trump was not impressed with their position," one source said.
Earlier this month, Trump and Putin had agreed by phone to meet in the Hungarian capital to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Days later, Russia's foreign ministry sent the memo underlining demands to address what Putin calls the "root causes" of his three-and-a-half-year invasion, three people familiar with the matter said.
It outlined conditions that included Ukrainian territorial concessions, a steep reduction of its armed forces, and guarantees that it would never join NATO.
Despite describing his October 16 call with Putin as "very productive," Trump reportedly grew irritated when the Russian leader boasted of battlefield gains near Kupiansk and the Oskil River.
After the summit’s cancellation, Trump imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil producers and criticized Putin for testing nuclear weapons rather than pursuing peace.
