October 24, 2025 | 11:09 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The planned direct meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, in Budapest, Hungary, has been officially canceled.
According to ABC News, Trump said the meeting would be pointless if it did not produce progress on the Russia-Ukraine war.
“I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to have a waste of time — so we'll see what happens.” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The summit was first announced by Trump last week as an attempt to explore ways to end the nearly four-year-long conflict in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have held a phone call. Both sides spoke but agreed that an in-person meeting was not yet necessary.
Ceasefire Proposal
According to Al Jazeera, Trump proposed freezing the war along the current front lines with a ceasefire.
“What I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines, go home, stop killing people and be done,” he said, adding that discussions over disputed territories could take place later.
Russia, however, rejected the proposal. Two U.S. officials told ABC News that Moscow sent an unofficial document, or non-paper, to Washington reaffirming its demands, including full recognition of the Donbas region and additional territory from Ukraine.
Russia currently controls all of Luhansk and about 75 percent of Donetsk.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov emphasized to Russian media that any Trump-Putin meeting cannot be rushed and must be carefully prepared.
Russia also rejected ending the war without guarantees on controlled territory. Foreign Minister Lavrov reiterated in Moscow that Russia’s position remains unchanged since the Alaska meeting last August.
Europe Rejects Forced Surrender
NDTV reported that European leaders welcomed Trump’s decision to postpone the meeting, citing concerns that Putin might use dialogue to buy time while consolidating his position on the battlefield.
Leaders from the UK, France, and Germany rejected any efforts to force Ukraine to surrender territory for peace, as Trump had suggested.
European officials continue to plan using billions of dollars from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. They also urge the U.S. to insist on a ceasefire along current battle lines as the basis for any future negotiations.
Impact on Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the postponement but stressed that international pressure must continue.
In a Telegram post on Tuesday, he wrote, “We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace.”
Zelensky revealed that Putin contacted Trump last week when the U.S. considered supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
However, once pressure eased, Russia began to downgrade diplomacy, postponing dialogue,” he said. Trump has yet to confirm the shipment of the weapons.
The cancellation of the Budapest meeting underscores the absence of a clear diplomatic path to end the nearly four-year conflict.
Politico reported that the previous Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska in August also failed to produce results, and noted that several European officials were surprised by Trump’s announcement of the Budapest summit, viewing his policies as heavily influenced by the last person he met.
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