No timeframe set for Trump-Putin summit, says Russia
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Mr Trump (right) said the meeting with Mr Putin (left) could take place within two weeks, though that timeline appears to be slipping away.
PHOTO: AFP
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MOSCOW – Russia on Oct 21 said there was “no precise timeframe” for a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on Ukraine and doused hopes for a swift preparatory meeting to finalise the talks.
Following a phone call last week, Mr Putin and Mr Trump announced that they would meet in Budapest for talks
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US counterpart Marco Rubio spoke on Oct 20 to discuss preparations for the summit, and are expected to meet in person to finalise details.
Mr Trump said the meeting with Mr Putin could take place within two weeks, though that timeline appears to be slipping away as Moscow now said laying the groundwork for the meeting “could take time”.
“No precise timeframe was initially set here,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a briefing on Oct 21.
Asked if the summit could be postponed, Mr Peskov said: “You can’t postpone something that hasn’t been set in stone... Preparation is needed, serious preparation.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov earlier said it was “premature to talk about the schedule” of the preparatory Lavrov-Rubio meeting.
“Neither before the phone call nor during yesterday’s call was the meeting specifically raised,” Mr Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agencies.
Mr Trump, who previously claimed he could settle the Ukraine war in a matter of hours, has shown frustration with both Moscow and Kyiv over the failure to broker peace.
Mr Putin has rejected multiple calls for a ceasefire and stuck to a list of hardline demands that Kyiv sees as unacceptable.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is pushing to attend the summit in Budapest
Several rounds of direct negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian teams in Istanbul have yielded nothing beyond prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of the bodies of soldiers killed in combat.
A previous summit between Mr Putin and Mr Trump in Alaska ended early with no breakthrough towards a peace deal.
Ukraine says a meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky is needed to make progress, but the Kremlin has ruled out talks with the Ukrainian leader until a peace deal is practically agreed. AFP
