Trump doesn’t want ‘wasted meeting’ with Putin as he confirms talks on
Ukraine war are off for now
[October 22, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE and CHRIS MEGERIAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a
swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on hold because he
didn't want it to be a “waste of time.” It was the latest twist in
Trump's stop-and-go effort to resolve the war in Ukraine.
The decision to hold off on the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which
Trump had announced last week, was made following a call Monday between
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov.
“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Trump said. “I don’t want to
have a waste of time — so we’ll see what happens.”
Lavrov made clear in public comments Tuesday that Russia is opposed to
an immediate ceasefire. Trump, meanwhile, has been shifting his stance
all year on key issues in the war, including whether a ceasefire should
come before longer-term peace talks, and whether Ukraine could win back
land seized by Russia during almost four years of fighting.
Trump's hesitancy in meeting Putin will likely come as a relief to
European leaders, who have accused Putin of stalling for time with
diplomacy while trying to gain ground on the battlefield.
The leaders — including the British prime minister, French president and
German chancellor — said they opposed any push to make Ukraine surrender
land captured by Russian forces in return for peace, as Trump most
recently has suggested.
They also plan to push forward with plans to use billions of dollars in
frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine’s war efforts, despite some
misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step.
The U.S. and Russian presidents last met in Alaska in August, but the
encounter did not advance Trump’s stalled attempts to end a war that
began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Kremlin didn’t seem to be in a rush to get Trump and Putin together
again either. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “preparation
is needed, serious preparation” before a meeting.
Trump suggested that decisions about the meeting would be made in the
coming days.
What Ukraine wants from the US
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been trying to strengthen
Ukraine's position by seeking long-range Tomahawk missiles from the
U.S., although Trump has waffled on whether he would provide them.
“We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,”
Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a Telegram post.
He noted that Putin returned to diplomacy and called Trump last week
when it looked like Tomahawk missiles were a possibility. But "as soon
as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop
diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,” Zelenskyy said.
On Wednesday, Trump is expected to hold talks in the White House with
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The military alliance has been
coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased
from the U.S. by Canada and European countries.
A meeting of the Coalition of the Willing — a group of 35 countries who
support Ukraine — is due to take place in London on Friday.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Vitaly Mutko, the chief
executive officer of Dom.RF, not pictured, during their meeting at
the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Alexander
Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
How Trump's stance on the war has shifted
Trump initially focused on pressuring Ukraine to make concessions,
but then grew frustrated with Putin's intransigence. Trump often
complains that he thought his good relationship with his Russian
counterpart would have made it easier to end the war.
Last month, Trump reversed his long-held position that Ukraine would
have to give up land and suggested it could win back all the
territory it has lost to Russia. But after a phone call with Putin
last week and a subsequent meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday, Trump
shifted his position again and called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop
where they are" and end the war.
On Sunday, Trump said the industrial Donbas region of eastern
Ukraine should be “cut up,” leaving most of it in Russian hands.
Trump said Monday that while he thinks it is possible that Ukraine
can ultimately defeat Russia, he’s now doubtful it will happen.
Ukrainian and European leaders trying to keep Trump on their side
“We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting
should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should
be the starting point of negotiations,” the leaders' statement said.
“We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and
destruction."
Lavrov made clear Tuesday that Russia opposes a ceasefire, Russian
state news agencies reported. He told journalists in Moscow that it
would go against what the two presidents agreed upon in Alaska.
Trump had hoped to get Russia to stop the fighting, but he was
rebuffed by Putin, who has pushed for a comprehensive settlement to
end the war.
Russia occupies about one fifth of Ukraine, but carving up their
country in return for peace is unacceptable to Kyiv officials.
Also, a conflict frozen on the current front line could fester, with
occupied areas of Ukraine offering Moscow a springboard for new
attacks in the future, Ukrainian and European officials fear.
The statement by the leaders of Ukraine, the U.K., Finland, France,
Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Denmark and EU officials came early
in what Zelenskyy said Monday would be a week that is “very active
in diplomacy.”
More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be
discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
“We must ramp up the pressure on Russia’s economy and its defense
industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,” Tuesday’s statement
said.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed reporting.
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