Meeting Postponed

The White House announced on Tuesday that there are “no plans” for President Trump to meet with Russian President Putin, postponing a summit Trump had said would take place in Hungary within weeks.

Context

Last week, Trump had a phone call with Putin and announced that the two would meet soon in Hungary to try to end the war. The following day, Trump met Ukrainian President Zelensky at the White House in what sources described as a contentious meeting that descended into a “shouting match,” with Trump cursing repeatedly and pressuring Zelensky to surrender the Donbas region to Russia. During that meeting, Zelensky sought long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to strike Russian targets deep inside Russia, but Trump declined to provide them.

Terms Disagreement

A senior White House official told outlets on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a “productive call” but decided an in-person meeting between Trump and Putin was not immediately necessary. A preparatory meeting between Lavrov and Rubio that had been scheduled for Budapest this week was also canceled.