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Trump Says He Put Off Plans To Meet Putin To Avoid 'Wasted Meeting' Though Diplomacy Continues

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service October 21, 2025

There are no plans for US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet "in the immediate future," a senior White House official said on October 21, days after Trump had indicated that another summit was being arranged with his Russian counterpart.

Trump said the possibility of a "wasted meeting" had led him to put plans for a summit with Putin on hold. But Trump reiterated that he believes both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy want to end the war and alluded to ongoing diplomacy.

"A lot of things are happening on the war front," Trump also told reporters at the White House, saying more would be known "in the next few days."

A spokeswoman for NATO chief Mark Rutte said earlier on X that Rutte would visit Washington on October 21-22 and would meet with Trump. A source quoted by Reuters said he would present European views on a cease-fire and any subsequent peace negotiations.

Separately, Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, said on X that preparations for a summit were ongoing.

"Media is twisting comment about the 'immediate future' to undercut the upcoming Summit. Preparations continue," he said.

Earlier on October 21 a senior White House official said "there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future" after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a "productive call" but opted against an in-person meeting.

Moscow's rejection of an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine appeared to have been the sticking point.

Lavrov repeated Russia's opposition to an immediate cease-fire, saying it is necessary to find a solution that eliminates what the Kremlin calls the war's "root causes."

The Russian foreign minister said however that he and Rubio had agreed to continue telephone consultations "to better understand where we are and how to move in the right direction." He said Russia's war aims remained unchanged and that its "special military operation" would achieve its objectives.

Ukraine's military said late on October 21 that its forces had struck an important chemical plant in southern Russia's Bryansk region.

A statement from the General Staff said Storm Shadow air-launched missiles were used in a combined missile and air strike that successfully penetrated Russian air defenses.

It described the plant as "an important component of the military-industrial complex of the aggressor country" producing gunpowder, explosives, and rocket fuel and said damage caused by the operation was being assessed.

Trump said on October 20 that attempts to reach an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the war were ongoing and warned that if an agreement is not reached, the consequences will be serious.

Zelenskyy 'Ready' For Budapest

The idea for a Trump-Putin summit in Budapest emerged during a call between the two leaders last week. Trump then met with Zelenskyy at the White House to discuss the potential that the United States could provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles. The meeting turned out to be largely inconclusive.

Zelenskyy said that the US administration's decision not to green-light Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine had weakened diplomatic leverage.

In his evening address he said Russia "continues to do everything to weasel out of diplomacy -- and as soon as the issue of long-range capabilities for us -- for Ukraine -- became less immediate, Russia's interest in diplomacy faded almost automatically."

Zelenskyy and senior European Union officials have repeatedly expressed doubts about Putin's willingness to end the war, and released a joint statement on October 21 underlining this.

"Russia's stalling tactics have shown time and time again that Ukraine is the only party serious about peace," said the statement, signed by Zelenskyy, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, and others.

"We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction," they added.

Nevertheless, Zelenskyy has said that he's "ready" to sit down for peace talks in the Hungarian capital even though the venue selection has been criticized by the European Union given an International Criminal Court arrest warrant outstanding against Putin.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that if Putin tried to fly across Poland to Hungary, the Polish Air Force might force his plane to land.

"I cannot guarantee that an independent Polish court won't order the government to escort such an aircraft down to hand the suspect to the court in The Hague," he told Radio Rodzina. Lavrov said this would be a "terrorist act."

Amid the controversy, Hungary appeared to be moving ahead with plans for the summit. Its foreign minister told a briefing in Budapest that he would travel to the US capital on October 21 but gave no details of the trip.

Zelenskyy said on social media that there will be "many meeting and negotiations in Europe this week" amid media reports that he will fly to London on October 24 where a meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, comprising over 20 Western allies of Ukraine, is to gather.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-war-trump- putin-zelenskyy/33565458.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.