{"id":323218,"date":"2025-10-22T07:12:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323218\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:12:23","slug":"ukraine-and-european-leaders-accuse-putin-of-stalling-peace-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323218\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine and European leaders accuse Putin of stalling peace efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting<\/a> with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on hold because he didn\u2019t want it to be a \u201cwaste of time.\u201d It was the latest twist in Trump\u2019s stop-and-go effort to resolve the war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a lunch with Republican Senators on the Rose Garden patio at the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a lunch with Republican Senators on the Rose Garden patio at the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to have a wasted meeting,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to have a waste of time \u2014 so we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

From AP\u2019s Standards and Stylebook teams:<\/b>
The AP is using anonymous sourcing to provide information for this story. Click here<\/a> to hear Washington Bureau Chief Anna Johnson explain AP\u2019s policy on the use of anonymous sources.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s 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<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The leaders \u2014 including the British prime minister, French president and German chancellor \u2014 said they opposed any push to make Ukraine surrender land captured by Russian forces in return for peace, as Trump most recently has suggested.<\/p>\n

They also plan to push forward with plans to use<\/a> billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine\u2019s war efforts, despite some misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step.<\/p>\n

The U.S. and Russian presidents last met in Alaska<\/a> in August, but the encounter did not advance Trump\u2019s stalled attempts to end a war that began with Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin didn\u2019t seem to be in a rush to get Trump and Putin together again either. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that \u201cpreparation is needed, serious preparation\u201d before a meeting.<\/p>\n

Trump suggested that decisions about the meeting would be made in the coming days.<\/p>\n

What Ukraine wants from the US<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been trying to strengthen Ukraine\u2019s position by seeking long-range Tomahawk missiles<\/a> from the U.S., although Trump has waffled on whether he would provide them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,\u201d Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a Telegram post.<\/p>\n

He noted that Putin returned to diplomacy and called Trump last week when it looked like Tomahawk missiles were a possibility. But \u201cas soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ukraine's<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to reporters in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House, following a meeting with President Donald Trump, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to reporters in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House, following a meeting with President Donald Trump, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

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.<\/a> by Canada and European countries. <\/p>\n

A meeting of the Coalition of the Willing<\/a> \u2014 a group of 35 countries who support Ukraine \u2014 is due to take place in London on Friday.<\/p>\n

How Trump\u2019s stance on the war has shifted<\/p>\n

Trump initially focused on pressuring Ukraine to make concessions, but then grew frustrated with Putin\u2019s intransigence. Trump often complains that he thought his good relationship with his Russian counterpart would have made it easier to end the war.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cstop where they are\u201d<\/a> and end the war.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Trump said the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine should be \u201ccut up,\u201d leaving most of it in Russian hands.<\/p>\n

Trump said Monday that while he thinks it is possible that Ukraine can ultimately defeat Russia, he\u2019s now doubtful<\/a> it will happen.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian and European leaders trying to keep Trump on their side<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly support President Trump\u2019s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,\u201d the leaders\u2019 statement said. \u201cWe can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Russia occupies about one fifth of Ukraine, but carving up their country in return for peace is unacceptable to Kyiv officials.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cvery active in diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must ramp up the pressure on Russia\u2019s economy and its defense industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,\u201d Tuesday\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed reporting.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3881,7838,37325,69,8697,57,3464,410,8955,50,80,257,3657,31131,273,3660,274,3656,96,93,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-323218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-diplomacy","10":"tag-dmitry-peskov","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-international-agreements","15":"tag-marco-rubio","16":"tag-mark-rutte","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","21":"tag-sergey-lavrov","22":"tag-ukraine","23":"tag-ukraine-government","24":"tag-vladimir-putin","25":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","26":"tag-war-and-unrest","27":"tag-washington-news","28":"tag-world","29":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115416580307500967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}