Trump Cancels Meeting With Putin       10/22 06:05

   President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with 
Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on hold because he didn't 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.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift 
meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on hold because he didn't 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 Trump 
had announced last week, was made following a call Monday between Secretary of 
State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

   "I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Trump said. "I don't want to have a 
waste of time -- so we'll see what happens."

   Lavrov made clear in public comments 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.

   Trump's hesitancy in meeting Putin will likely come as a relief to European 
leaders, who have accused 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 didn't seem to be in a rush to get Trump and Putin together 
again either. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that "preparation is 
needed, serious preparation" before a meeting.

   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 Trump has waffled on whether he would provide them.

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

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

   On Wednesday, 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 U.S. 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

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

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

   Trump said Monday that while he thinks it is possible that Ukraine can 
ultimately defeat Russia, he's 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."

   Lavrov made clear 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. 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 U.K., Finland, France, Germany, 
Italy, Norway, Poland, Denmark and EU officials came early in what Zelenskyy 
said 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 defense industry, 
until Putin is ready to make peace," Tuesday's statement said.