Russian President Vladimir Putin, October 15, 2025.
Alexander Zemlianichenko | Afp | Getty Images
Russia rushed Wednesday to salvage the prospect of in-person talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin after they were unceremoniously suspended.
Trump said Tuesday he did not want to “have an unnecessary meeting” with Putin, which is expected to take place in Hungary in the coming weeks, as it became clear that Russia opposes the idea of an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine.
“I don’t want to waste any time, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump said following a call Monday between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
After the call, Russia’s top diplomat told reporters in Moscow that he told Rubio that “Russia has not changed its position” since Trump and Putin met in Alaska in August, and that while Moscow wanted a “long-lasting and viable peace,” it was not interested in an “immediate ceasefire that will lead to nothing.”
After those comments, and as Trump appeared to throw cold water on the idea of meeting Putin again, the Kremlin appeared to go into damage limitation mode, insisting Wednesday that the dates for the Budapest summit “were not set” but that preparations were still underway.
“This remains to be done. Careful preparation is necessary before that. It takes time for this,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, told reporters in comments translated by NBC News.
“There is no news yet; it is clear that all this is surrounded by a lot of gossip, rumors, etc. For the most part, they are completely false. There is no news yet,” he added.
Another U-turn?
The suspension of negotiations with Russia appears to be another reversal by the U.S. administration, which has wavered this year on its stance on Russia, the war in Ukraine and its causes, as well as its potential resolution.
There was more than a whiff of smugness and schadenfreude in Moscow and Russian state media last week when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s in-person talks with Trump last Friday appeared to go poorly.
Especially after Russia effectively undermined the negotiations by getting there first, winning Trump’s ear through a “very productive” — as Trump described it — phone call with Putin. It was during this call that the leaders agreed to meet in person in a few weeks.
Trump and his team appeared to waver on their support for Ukraine after the call, with Zelensky leaving the White House the next day empty-handed, without long-range Tomahawk missiles as requested, and fearing pressure to abandon occupied territory in eastern Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives for a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, October 17, 2025.
Tom Brenner | AFP | Getty Images
Those fears were heightened when Trump called last weekend for the partially Russian-occupied Donbas region, the epicenter of ongoing fighting in the three-and-a-half-year war, to be “cut off as it is.”
“It’s cut off right now, I think 78% of the territory is already taken by Russia,” the president said on Air Force One on Sunday. “They should stop at the battle lines immediately. … Go home, stop killing people and get it over with.”
Ukraine and a group of European allies opposed Trump’s position, warning in a joint statement Tuesday that Russia was using “delaying tactics” to prolong the war. However, keen to alienate Trump, they were careful to praise his efforts to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.
“We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting must stop immediately and that the current line of contact must be the starting point for negotiations. We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force,” the European leaders noted.
Russia blames ‘fake news’
Now the situation has reversed again, with Moscow appearing anxious, with the Kremlin insisting it is serious about ending the war.
“No one wants to waste time. Neither President Trump nor President Putin. These are two presidents used to working effectively and efficiently, but efficiency always requires preparation,” Peskov said on Wednesday.
Various Russian officials close to Putin have accused the media of spreading “fake news” about the “cancellation” of the Hungarian summit in an attempt to undermine it.
“The media is distorting comments about ‘the immediate future’ to undermine the next summit. Preparations continue,” Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s investment envoy and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, commented on the social network X.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev during a meeting with experts of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and representatives of the international investment community at the Konstantin Palace.
Mikhail Klimentiev | TASS via Getty Images
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also made a similar argument, telling Radio Sputnik on Wednesday that an “information circus” had surrounded the Trump-Putin summit.
“This whole information circus, which they have not yet finished, continues: false leaks, self-corrections, confirmations, denials, exist to once again provide informational support to Zelensky,” she said in comments translated by NBC News.
