Plans for Trump-Putin summit in Budapest put on hold after Rubio spoke with Lavrov: report

The plans for a summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest were put on hold after Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to a report.

The summit on the war in Ukraine was announced last week, but a date had not been set. The decision to put the plans on hold was made after a call between Rubio and Lavrov, an unnamed U.S. official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov indicated Tuesday there was no sense of urgency for the meeting to occur, saying that “preparation is needed, serious preparation.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Putin returned to diplomacy and talked to Trump last week when there was a possibility that the U.S. would supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.

But “as soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,” Zelensky said Tuesday in a Telegram post.

“We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,” he added.