Ukraine struggle: No assembly in Budapest – How Putin is driving Trump forward of him | EUROtoday

It has been barely six days since Donald Trump introduced one other assembly with Vladimir Putin. “We have agreed that a meeting of our senior advisors will take place next week,” the US President stated on his Truth Social platform final Thursday. Afterwards he’ll meet with Russia’s rulers. Trump even specified the time-frame and spoke of “within two weeks”. The location: Budapest, Hungary. There, in keeping with Trump, he’ll see “whether we can end this ‘inglorious’ war between Russia and Ukraine.”

But that will not occur in the intervening time. Washington took one other activate Tuesday. After a “productive” cellphone name between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, there are “no more plans” for a gathering within the “immediate future,” a US official stated.

A turnaround that after once more goes again to Russia’s powerful line. Putin is aware of the best way to push Trump additional forward of him. It was already clear at first of the week in Moscow that Putin had a distinct thought of ​​the assembly in Budapest than Trump. Washington’s method that the fighters ought to freeze the battle on the present entrance strains is unacceptable, the Kremlin stated. Moscow’s place is “unchanged.” “An immediate ceasefire in Ukraine would mean only one thing: most of the country would remain under Nazi rule,” Lavrov stated.

Trump’s proposal was unanimously welcomed by Ukraine and the Europeans. “We strongly support President Trump’s position that fighting should cease immediately and the current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations,” stated a press release from the governments of Germany, France, Britain and different nations.

But Moscow clearly has little interest in this. According to the Reuters company on Tuesday, the Russian facet introduced its situations for a peace settlement to the USA in an unofficial communication. In the letter, Russia calls for management over all the Donbass area, though the Ukrainians proceed to efficiently defend massive elements of it.

Against this background, it is very important perceive what the White House meant by the diplomatically obscure time period “productive” with which it described the dialog between Rubio and Lavrov on Tuesday. Moscow had already anticipated that morning that this phone name wouldn’t be a precursor to a gathering in Budapest. “The work that lies ahead is challenging. Preparations, serious preparations, are needed,” Putin’s spokesman stated. Neither the Russian nor the US president gave a selected schedule for the assembly, the spokesman claimed.

“As soon as the pressure eases a little, the Russians will abandon the path of diplomacy and postpone any dialogue,” stated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, commenting on the newest volte-face. Zelensky additionally alluded to the truth that Trump had within the meantime promised his nation the supply of tomahawks and thus weapons with an extended vary so as to have the ability to assault the Russian struggle machine within the inside of the nation. From Kiev’s perspective, that was the explanation why Putin requested Trump for a cellphone name final week. After the 2 and a half hour dialog, the US President once more took the Kremlin line.

Stefanie Bolzen has been reporting for WELT since 2023 as a US correspondent from Washington, DC. Previously, she was a correspondent in London and Brussels. You can discover all of her articles right here.