Bangkok: The Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported on Friday that the United States has canceled a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, due to Russia's tough stance on key demands on Ukraine.
According to Thai News Agency, the decision came after a tense phone call between top diplomats from both countries, but neither the White House nor Russian government officials have commented on the FT's report.
A planned summit in Budapest this month between Trump and Putin was put on hold after Russia stuck to its demands, including a condition that Ukraine cede more territory in exchange for a ceasefire, while Trump backed Ukraine's demand for an immediate ceasefire on the current front.
The FT reports that just days after Trump and Putin agreed to meet in the Hungarian capital to discuss ways to end Russia's war in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry sent a memo to Washington reiterating its previous demands to address what Putin called the "root causes" of the aggression, including territorial ceding, a significant reduction in Ukraine's military, and guarantees that Ukraine would not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The FT report added that the US later canceled the planned summit after talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after which Rubio informed Trump that Russia had shown no willingness to negotiate.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready for peace talks but would not withdraw additional troops from its territory as Russia had demanded.