Plans for an in-person meeting between United States President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the next two weeks in Budapest, Hungary, fell apart on Tuesday, after Trump proposed “freezing” the Russia-Ukraine war with a ceasefire along the current front lines.
Apparently signalling that no meeting would take place anytime soon, Trump told the media at the White House on Tuesday: “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting. I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”
The latest derailing of peace talks to bring an end to Russia’s 42-month-long war on Ukraine comes just two months after Trump and Putin met at a hastily arranged summit in Alaska in August this year that also did not yield any results.
The largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II has killed tens of thousands of people on both sides.
So, why have plans for talks collapsed yet again, and what will it take for Russia to end the war?
During his presidential campaign last year, Trump boasted that it would take him just “24 hours” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. More than a year later – and 10 months into his second term as US president – he is now growing increasingly frustrated about the lack of progress.
Putin has called for the complete disarmament of Ukraine and for Russia to keep any territory it has seized during the war if it is to agree to a ceasefire. Ukraine has baulked at the notion of ceding land, and Trump has been unable to make any headway between the two positions.
Late on Sunday, Trump called on Russia to, instead, “freeze” the war along current battle lines, adding that the two sides could aim to resolve the “details” over territory at future talks.
“What I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines, go home, stop killing people and be done,” the US president said.
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