Kremlin Puts the Kibosh on an ‘Eternal European Peace’ Summit in Budapest Announced by Trump Last Week

Even before today, things were looking pretty bleak for a proposed Trump-Putin summit over the war in Ukraine that the president announced last week would take place in Budapest in “a couple of weeks,” or “soon.”

This morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio phoned his counterpart in Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, to discuss the summit. Lavrov informed Rubio that the summit would be a waste of time unless the U.S., along with Ukraine, would agree that Russia could gain control of all the Donbas territory of Ukraine as part of any deal.

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“I believe American officials have concluded that Russia’s position has remained largely unchanged over time and remains within the bounds of its initial maximalist demands,” Lavrov confirmed in a meeting with reporters.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has consistently shot down any notion of ceding Donbas, saying that Russia would just use its acquisition to mount an offensive against the rest of the country and eventually seize total control of Ukraine.

The summit already looked doubtful after French President Emmanuel Macron announced Putin could not fly over European territory unless he agreed to an immediate ceasefire during the summit. Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court, and any presence in or over Europe can lead to an arrest for war crimes.

Poland joined France in shooting down any travel plans to Hungary for a summit.

N.B.: Trump later, in reacting to the situation, said he thought the summit would be a “waste of time” anyway — a big change from his comments last week that peace was “very close.”