U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (October 21, 2025) his plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on hold because he did not 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 Mr. Trump had announced last week, was made following a call on Monday between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t want to have a waste of time — so we’ll see what happens.” Mr. Lavrov made clear in public comments on 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.

Mr. Trump’s hesitancy in meeting Mr. Putin will likely come as a relief to European leaders, who have accused Mr. 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 did not seem to be in a rush to get Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin together again either. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “preparation is needed, serious preparation” before a meeting.

Mr. 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 Mr. Trump has waffled on whether he would provide them.

“We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,” Mr. Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a Telegram post.

He noted that Mr. Putin returned to diplomacy and called Mr. 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,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

On Wednesday, Mr. 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 US 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.

How Trump’s stance on the war has shifted

Mr. 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, Mr. 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 Mr. Zelenskyy on Friday, Mr. Trump shifted his position again and called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end the war.

On Sunday, Mr. Trump said the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine should be “cut up,” leaving most of it in Russian hands.

Mr. Trump said on Monday that while he thinks it is possible that Ukraine can ultimately defeat Russia, he is 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.” Mr. Lavrov made clear on 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. Mr. 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 UK, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Denmark and EU officials came early in what Zelenskyy said on 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 defence industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,” Tuesday’s statement said.

Published – October 22, 2025 05:29 am IST

Youngsters undergo a training course at a Russian military-patriotic camp amid Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
| Photo Credit: AFP

U.S. President Trump’s tone on the war shifted after he held a lengthy phone call with Russian President Putin on October 16, 2025, and announced that he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Kremlin countered that the Russian economy was stable, despite problems in some sectors caused by sanctions
| Photo Credit: AP

First lady Melania Trump, left, watches as President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin welcome each other.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday (August 14, 2025) he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a deal about his war on Ukraine, and that the threat of sanctions against Russia likely played a role in Moscow’s decision to seek a meeting. Mr. Trump is scheduled to meet with Mr. Putin in Alaska on Friday (August 15, 2025). The U.S. President said he is unsure whether an immediate ceasefire can be achieved, but expressed interest in brokering a peace agreement.

“I believe now, he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to, and we’re going to find out,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show.”

-ReutersRead the story here

U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday (August 15, 2025) for a high-stakes summit that could determine not only the trajectory of the war in Ukraine but also the fate of European security.

The sit-down offers Mr. Trump a chance to prove to the world that he is both a master dealmaker and a global peacemaker. He and his allies have cast him as a heavyweight negotiator who can find a way to bring the slaughter to a close — something he used to boast he could do quickly.

Also read | India endorses Trump-Putin summit in Alaska

For Mr. Putin, a summit with Mr. Trump offers a long-sought opportunity to try to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia’s gains, block Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and eventually pull Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.

There are significant risks for Mr. Trump. By bringing Mr. Putin onto U.S. soil, the President is giving Russia’s leader the validation he desires after his ostracization following his invasion of Ukraine 3 1/2 years ago. The exclusion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the summit also deals a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” and invites the possibility that Mr. Trump could agree to a deal that Ukraine does not want.

Any success is far from assured, especially as Russia and Ukraine remain far apart in their demands for peace. Mr. Putin has long resisted any temporary ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies and a freeze on Ukraine’s mobilization efforts — conditions rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies.

Mr. Trump said that even more important than his summit with Mr. Putin would be a subsequent meeting that also includes Mr. Zelenskyy, something he suggested could even happen before he departs Alaska — a possibility that Russia hasn’t agreed to.

Mr. Trump said in a Fox News radio interview Thursday that he didn’t know if they would get “an immediate ceasefire” but he wanted a broad peace deal done quickly. That seemingly echoes Mr. Putin’s longtime argument that Russia favors a comprehensive deal to end the fighting, reflecting its demands, not a temporary halt to hostilities.

The Kremlin said Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one discussion, followed by the two delegations meeting and talks continuing over “a working breakfast.” They are then expected to hold a joint press conference.

In the days leading up to the summit, set for a military base near Anchorage, Mr. Trump described it as “ really a feel-out meeting.” But he’s also warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Mr. Putin doesn’t agree to end the war and said that though Mr. Putin might bully other leaders, “He’s not going to mess around with me.”

Mr. Trump’s repeated suggestions that a deal would likely involve “some swapping of territories” — which disappointed Ukraine and European allies — along with his controversial history with Putin have some skeptical about what kind of agreement can be reached.

Ian Kelly, a retired career foreign service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations, said he sees “no upside for the U.S., only an upside for Mr. Putin.”

“The best that can happen is nothing, and the worst that can happen is that Putin entices Trump into putting more pressure on Zelenskyy,” Mr. Kelly said.

George Beebe, the former director of the CIA’s Russia analysis team who is now affiliated with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said there’s a serious risk of blown expectations or misunderstandings for a high-level summit pulled together so quickly.

“That said, I doubt President Trump would be going into a meeting like this unless there had been enough work done behind the scenes for him to feel that there is a decent chance that something concrete will come out of it,” Mr. Beebe said.

Mr. Zelenskyy has time and again cast doubts on Mr. Putin’s willingness to negotiate in good faith. His European allies, who’ve held increasingly urgent meetings with U.S. leaders over the past week, have stressed the need for Ukraine to be involved in any peace talks.

Political commentators in Moscow, meanwhile, have relished that the summit leaves Ukraine and its European allies on the sidelines.

Dmitry Suslov, a pro-Kremlin voice, expressed hope that the summit will “deepen a trans-Atlantic rift and weaken Europe’s position as the toughest enemy of Russia.”

European leaders who consulted with Trump this week said the president assured them he would prioritize trying to achieve a ceasefire.

Foreign governments will be watching closely to see how Mr. Trump reacts to Mr. Putin, likely gauging what the interaction might mean for their own dealings with the U.S. president, who has eschewed traditional diplomacy for his own transactional approach to relationships.

The meeting comes as the war has caused heavy losses on both sides and drained resources.

Ukraine has held on far longer than some initially expected since the February 2022 invasion, but it is straining to hold off Russia’s much larger army, grappling with bombardments of its cities and fighting for every inch on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line.

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said U.S. antagonists like China, Iran and North Korea will be paying attention to Trump’s posture to see “whether or not the threats that he continues to make against Putin are indeed credible.”

“Or, if has been the past track record, he continues to back down and look for ways to wiggle out of the kind of threats and pressure he has promised to apply,” said Kendall-Taylor, who is also a former senior intelligence officer.

While some have objected to the location of the summit, Trump has said he thought it was “very respectful” of Putin to come to the U.S. instead of a meeting in Russia.

Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin Moscow-based analyst, observed that the choice of Alaska as the summit’s venue “underlined the distancing from Europe and Ukraine.”

Being on a military base allows the leaders to avoid protests and meet more securely, but the location carries its own significance because of its history and location.

Alaska, which the U.S. purchased from Russia in 1867, is separated from Russia at its closest point by just 3 miles (less than 5 kilometers) and the international date line.

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It continues to play a role today, as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into U.S. airspace.

Published – August 15, 2025 10:11 am IST

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Top Russian officials will hold talks with U.S. counterparts on restoring ties, negotiating a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine and preparing a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, the Kremlin said Monday (February 17, 2025).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Mr. Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov will fly to the Saudi capital later in the day to take part in the talks set for Tuesday (February 18, 2025).

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the U.S. delegation. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News Sunday that he and national security adviser Mike Waltz also will take part in the talks.

Mr. Peskov said the talks will be primarily focused on “restoring the entire complex of U.S.-Russian relations, as well as preparing possible talks on the Ukrainian settlement and organizing a meeting of the two presidents.”

Speaking to journalists on a conference call from the United Arab Emirates on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country won’t take part in the talks this week, adding that they would “yield no results,” given the absence of any Ukrainian officials. European governments have also demanded a role.

The talks follow last week’s telephone call between Trump and Putin in which Trump said they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” The call upended years of U.S. policy, ending the isolation of Moscow over its Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. After the call with Putin, Trump phoned Mr. Zelenskyy to inform him about their conversation.

Trump on Sunday told reporters that Mr. Zelenskyy “will be involved,” but did not elaborate.

Mr. Zelenskyy said he would travel to Turkey on Monday and to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but that his trip to the Arab nation was unrelated to planned U.S.-Russia talks there on Tuesday.

Andriy Yermak, a top Zelenskyy adviser, said earlier Sunday there was no possibility of Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting directly in the immediate future. In a Telegram post, Yermak said the Ukrainians weren’t planning to do so “until we develop a plan” to end the war and bring about a “just peace.”

Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Witkoff said he and Waltz will be “having meetings at the direction of the president,” and hope to make “some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine.”

In his TV interview, Mr. Witkoff didn’t directly respond to a question about whether Ukraine would have to give up a “significant portion” of its territory as part of any negotiated settlement.

“Those are details, and I’m not dismissive of the details, they’re important. But I think the beginning here is trust-building. It’s getting everybody to understand that this war does not belong continuing, that it should end. That’s what the president has directed us to do,” he said.

Washington, United States:

US President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.

In their first confirmed contact since Trump’s return to the White House, the US president said he had held a “lengthy and highly productive” conversation with the Russian counterpart who ordered the bloody 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

But the move sparked concerns that Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate, after Trump said Kyiv’s wish to join NATO was not “practical” — a key demand of Moscow.

Trump, who has been pushing for a quick end to the nearly three-year war, denied that Ukraine was being excluded from the direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.

“We expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there — and we’re going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about his plans to meet Putin.

Trump said he expected it to happen “in the not too distant future” and added that Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who played a key role in a Russia-US prisoner exchange this week — would also be involved.

The Kremlin said the call lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours. The two leaders had agreed that the “time has come to work together” and that Putin has invited Trump to Moscow, it said.

Before taking office on January 20, Trump had promised to end the Ukraine war “within 24 hours”.

‘Make peace’

Trump took the world by surprise as he announced the phone call on his Truth Social platform earlier, saying he and Putin had “both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” using an unconfirmed figure for the toll in the conflict.

The US president said they had agreed to “work together very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations” and to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on Ukraine.

Trump later called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included on the call with Putin.

Zelensky said afterwards that he had a “meaningful” call with Trump in which he had “shared details” of his talks with Putin.

Trump said after the conversation that Zelensky “like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”

Andriy Yermak, head of Kyiv’s presidential office, said in televised comments that Zelensky and Trump had agreed to “immediately” start work on the high-level teams from each side who will try to hash out a deal.

The teams will “begin a process of daily work” and Zelensky and his officials will meet US officials involved at the Munich Security Conference in a day’s time, Yermak said.

But Trump’s call with Putin has raised concerns that the United States was agreeing to Russia’s terms.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told European counterparts earlier Wednesday that Ukraine’s dream of returning to its pre-2014 borders was an “illusionary goal” — and that Kyiv’s wish for NATO membership was “not realistic.”

Both are key demands of Moscow.

Trump denied that Zelensky was being frozen out, and rejected criticism that Hegseth’s comments meant Washington was agreeing to Russia’s preconditions.

Yermak meanwhile reiterated Kyiv’s stance that Ukraine’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty” cannot be subject to compromise.

The Ukrainian leader is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia. Trump has meanwhile suggested a deal for Kyiv’s rare earth minerals in exchange for its continued military aid.

‘Root causes’

Zelensky is due to meet US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, after meeting US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The Kremlin’s statement on the call with Trump was more measured.

It said Putin “agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be reached through peace negotiations” but said he wanted to “address the root causes of the conflict,” which Russian blames on western influence on Kyiv.

There had been signs of a thaw this week with a prisoner swap deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel and Belarus release a US citizen, while Washington released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik.

Trump has previously expressed admiration for Putin and heaped praise on the Russian president in his Truth Social post. He said Putin “even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.'” and thanked him for Fogel’s release.

However, concern has been mounting in Kyiv and European capitals about the shape of a possible deal.

The French, German and Spanish foreign ministers insisted Wednesday that there could be “no just and lasting peace” without the involvement of Kyiv and its European partners.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)