President Donald Trump’s second summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin may not come to fruition as quickly as he predicted — or at all — after a senior Kremlin aide said too much daylight remains.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in part to nail down plans for them to meet as early as this week in Budapest, Hungary. But that meeting is now in question, Lavrov said.
In a press conference in Moscow Tuesday, Lavrov said he informed Rubio that Russia’s position — that a peace agreement must come before a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine — has not changed since Putin and Trump met in Alaska two months ago.
“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 said. “Russia has not altered its positions compared to understandings and prolonged negotiations between Putin and Trump in Alaska.”
Russia has long called for the elimination of the “root causes” of the war in Ukraine, claiming that its growing alignment with Europe and desire to join NATO amount to an existential threat. Putin has questioned the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and urged new elections in Ukraine, called for the end of the so-called persecution of Russian speakers and demanded that Ukraine doesn’t join NATO. He frequently peppers his speeches on Ukraine with unsubstantiated claims that the country is filled with “Nazis.”
“We remain entirely committed to this formula and I confirmed it yesterday in the conversation with Marco Rubio,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov also questioned how Putin would fly to Budapest, given Poland’s threat to execute the International Criminal Court’s active arrest warrant if Putin flies inside its airspace.
The White House did not respond to a request to respond to Lavrov’s comments.
Trump walked away from the Alaska meeting without any concessions from the Russian leader, and his claim that Putin wanted to make peace was belied by Russia’s refusal to engage in direct talks with Ukraine and its ongoing aerial assault on Ukrainian cities.
After a phone call with Putin Thursday, Trump announced again that the two leaders made “great progress” and that they planned to meet in Budapest. A day later, Trump hosted Zelenskyy at the White House but refused to grant his request for U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles to strike deeper into Russia, instead pushing Ukraine to cede more territory for a peace settlement largely on Putin’s terms.
Lavrov told reporters Tuesday that Russia rejected the “signals coming out of Washington” about a desire to end the war along the current battle lines, which Trump has advocated in recent days.
“The main thing is not the location or the timeframe, but the main thing is how we will proceed on the substance of those matters,” Lavrov said. “The objectives that we agreed upon and reached a broad understanding in Anchorage.”
The president’s diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East earlier this month bolstered his own confidence in his peacemaking capabilities and, he and aides had hoped, could generate newfound momentum in negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. But the Gaza peace agreement is being tested as new violence has broken out between Israel and Hamas. And Putin continues to make clear that, despite a willingness to engage with the White House, Russia is not interested in ending the war.
Trump, who worked closely with Arab and Muslim partners to reach a ceasefire in the Middle East, had been somewhat willing to coordinate his peacemaking efforts in Ukraine with European partners. But many were caught off-guard by his announcement last week that he and Putin had agreed to meet again.
One EU official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, called it a reminder of the “last person he speaks to” theory of Trump, who has at times aligned publicly with the last person he’s spoken to. But the lack of any public criticism of Trump’s proposed summit from most European leaders also showed a better understanding of how to deal with the president.
“I would expect visits to Washington [by European leaders] and other coordination to happen very soon,” the EU official said.
Some European officials were also frustrated by Trump’s chosen location of Budapest for the meeting — not just because of its tragic symbolism for Ukraine but because Hungary is a member of the EU.
