U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday (October 25, 2025) played down prospects of a summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin anytime soon, even as a top Kremlin negotiator huddled for talks with U.S. officials on ending the war in Ukraine.

“I’m going to have to know that we’re going to make a deal. I’m not going to be wasting my time,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Asia, days after plans for a summit with Mr. Putin in Budapest collapsed.

“I’ve always had a great relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this has been very disappointing,” Mr. Trump said. “I thought this would have gotten done before peace in the Middle East.”

The President’s comments came as Kremlin negotiator Kirill Dmitriev met with Trump administration officials Friday (October 24, 2025) and Saturday (October 25, 2025), a Russian source familiar with the talks told AFP. Talks were expected to continue on Sunday (October 26, 2025).

Mr. Dmitriev met on Saturday (Octoer 25, 2025) in Florida with Mr. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, U.S. media reported.

Mr. Dmitriev told CNN in an interview on Friday (October 24, 2025) a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine was within reach, after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he backed Trump’s proposal to make the current frontline the basis for negotiations with Russia.

“I believe Russia and the US and Ukraine actually quite close to a diplomatic solution,” Mr. Dmitriev told CNN.

“It’s a big move by President Zelenskyy to already acknowledge that it’s about battle lines. You know, his previous position was that Russia should leave completely so actually, I think we are reasonably close to a diplomatic solution that can be worked out.”

His visit to the United States came after Washington slapped sanctions Wednesday on Russia’s two largest oil companies.

Mr. Trump had held off pulling the trigger on sanctions against Russia for months, but his patience snapped after plans for the fresh summit with Mr. Putin in Budapest collapsed, following failed talks in Alaska in August.

The Republican billionaire has however said he hopes that the sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil are short-lived and that the “war will be settled.”

Mr. Putin admitted the sanctions were “serious” but insisted they were not enough to significantly damage the Russian economy.

He added that the sanctions were an “unfriendly act” that “does not strengthen Russia-U.S. relations, which have only just begun to recover.”

But the Russian leader said he remained open to dialogue with Mr. Trump, and Mr. Dmitriev said on Friday (October 24, 2025) the meeting between the two leaders “will happen, but probably at a later date.”

Mr. Zelenskyy called the U.S. sanctions “a strong and much-needed message that aggression will not go unanswered.”

The European Union levied tough sanctions on the Russian oil and gas sector in parallel to the U.S. measures.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (October 23, 2025) that Moscow would never bow to pressure from the United States or any other foreign power, and cautioned that it would deliver an “overwhelming” response to any military strikes deep inside Russia.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday hit Russia’s two biggest oil companies with sanctions in a sharp policy shift on Moscow’s war in Ukraine, prompting global oil prices to rise by nearly 5% on Thursday.

Mr. Putin told reporters that U.S. and Western sanctions were an “unfriendly” act and “will have certain consequences, but they will not significantly affect our economic well-being”.

Russia’s energy sector feels confident, he said. “This is, of course, an attempt to put pressure on Russia,” Mr. Putin added. “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure.”

Mr. Putin, after joking with reporters about how sanctions might prevent the West importing Russian toilets, recalled that Mr. Trump during his first term imposed tough sanctions on Russia.

He warned that disrupting exports from Russia – the world’s second largest oil exporter – would lead to a sharp rise in the price of oil, including at U.S. gas stations.

This could be politically uncomfortable for Washington, he said. While the extent of the financial hit on Russia may be limited in the short term, the new sanctions are a powerful signal of Trump’s intent to squeeze its finances and try to force the Kremlin towards a peace deal.

Mr. Trump said during the U.S. election campaign that he would swiftly end the Ukraine war which his administration has cast as a “proxy war” between Washington and Moscow. After leaning heavily on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he has recently expressed disappointment and frustration with Putin.

Mr. Trump, who has described Russia as a “paper tiger”, said on Wednesday he had cancelled a planned summit with Mr. Putin. The U.S. Treasury slapped sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil companies.

Mr. Putin said that the summit and venue – Budapest – had been proposed by Mr. Trump.

“What can I say? Dialogue is always better than some kind of confrontation, than some kind of dispute or, even more so, war,” Mr. Putin said.

Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration has lifted a key restriction on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies, and remarks by Zelenskyy about domestic missiles with a range of 3,000 km (1,900 miles), Mr. Putin said: “This is an attempt at escalation.”

“But if such weapons are used to attack Russian territory, the response will be very serious, if not overwhelming. Let them think about it,” he said.

The European Union (EU) on Thursday (October 23, 2025) heaped more economic sanctions on Russia, adding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s new punitive measures the previous day against the Russian oil industry.

It is a broadened effort to choke off the revenue that funds Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and to force President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war.

The steps are a triumph for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has long campaigned for the international community to punish Russia more comprehensively for attacking his country.

Ukraine and E.U. leaders accuse Putin of stalling and reject land concessions for peace

“We waited for this. God bless, it will work. And this is very important,” the Ukrainian leader said in Brussels, where EU countries attending a summit announced the latest round of Russia sanctions.

Despite U.S.-led peace efforts in recent months, the war shows no sign of ending after more than three years of fighting, and European leaders are increasingly concerned about the threat from Russia.

Ukrainian forces have largely held Russia’s bigger Army at bay in a slow and ruinous war of attrition along a roughly 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front line that snakes along eastern and southern Ukraine. Almost daily Russian long-range strikes have taken aim at Ukraine’s power grid ahead of the bitter winter, while Ukrainian forces have targeted Russian oil refineries and manufacturing plants.

Ukraine resists EU conditions on loan backed by frozen Russian assets

Energy revenue is the linchpin of Russia’s economy, allowing Mr. Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a currency collapse.

The EU measures target Russian oil and gas, the Russian shadow fleet of hundreds of aging tankers that are dodging sanctions, and Russia’s financial sector. Also, a new system for limiting the movement of Russian diplomats within the 27-nation EU will be introduced.

Mr. Zelenskyy urged more nations to punish Russia. “This is a good signal to other countries in the world to join the sanctions,” he told reporters in Brussels. Senior officials in Europe and the United States have debated for months over how best to crank up pressure on the Kremlin.

Russia says it takes two more Ukrainian villages, struck energy targets overnight

The new EU measures took almost a month to decide. The 27-nation bloc has already slapped 18 packages of sanctions against Russia over the war, but getting final agreement on whom and what to target can take weeks. Moscow has also proved adept at sidestepping sanctions.

The U.S. sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil came after Mr. Trump said his plan for a swift meeting with Mr. Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time,” in the latest twist in Trump’s hot-and-cold efforts to end the war as Mr. Putin refuses to budge from his demands.

In what appeared to be a public reminder of Russian atomic arsenals, Mr. Putin on Wednesday (October 23, 2025) directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces.