The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was unclear when the summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin would take place.to seek the end of the war in Ukraine, and that no one had mentioned dates.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, the deadliest in Europe since World War II.although he has said that finding peace has been more difficult than reaching a ceasefire in Gaza or ending a conflict between India and Pakistan.
After speaking with Putin on October 16, Trump said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would meet this week ahead of a possible summit in Budapest in two weeks. Moscow did not give deadlines.
But CNN cited an unnamed White House official as saying that the long-awaited meeting between Rubio and Lavrov had been postponed for the time being. According to one source, Rubio and Lavrov had divergent expectations about a possible end to the war.
Lavrov told reporters that he had agreed with Rubio to continue telephone contacts, while the Kremlin said it was impossible to postpone a summit for which no date had been set. “Listen, we have an informal agreement between the presidents, but we cannot postpone what has not been finalized,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov. “Neither President Trump nor President Putin gave exact dates.”
“We need preparation, serious preparation,” Peskov said. “This may take time. That’s why, in fact, no exact dates were set.” Asked whether Moscow had agreed on a possible date for the summit, Peskov said: “No, there is nothing agreed.”
Putin, who ordered the entry of the Russian army into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in the east of the country between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, He has repeatedly said that he is willing to talk about peace and establish conditions to end the war.
Trump and Putin met on August 15 at a Cold War-era air base in the city of Anchorage, Alaska, USA.as part of an attempt to end the war, although some American and Russian sources said there were major disagreements between them at the meeting.
Trump has said that he believes peace can be achieved, although on several occasions he has warned President Volodymyr Zelensky that he “does not have any cards” and has called Russia a “paper tiger.”which, according to him, has failed to subdue Ukraine despite its enormous armed forces. Rubio and Lavrov spoke by phone on Monday to discuss next steps, according to Moscow and Washington.
