From summit to no summit How Trump’s planned meeting with Putin on European soil unraveled within days
On October 16, a day before meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin — and announced plans to meet with the Russian president in Hungary. The move caught European capitals off guard and set off a flurry of reactions. Hungary, which is technically obliged to arrest Putin under an International Criminal Court warrant, quickly agreed to host him. Other E.U. leaders were far less enthusiastic, and questions soon arose about how Putin could travel to landlocked Hungary given the E.U.’s blanket ban on Russian aircraft. All of that quickly became moot, however, when just days later, on October 21, the White House backtracked, saying no meeting was planned “in the immediate future.” Meduza breaks down the chain of events — from summit announcement to sudden cancellation.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than two hours. After what he calls a “very productive” conversation, Trump announces plans to meet with Putin in Hungary “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ war between Russia and Ukraine to an end.”
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Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House to discuss, among other issues, the possibility of Ukraine receiving Tomahawk missiles. During the meeting, Trump reportedly berates Zelensky, repeating Kremlin talking points and urging Ukraine to make territorial concessions. The Ukrainian delegation leaves empty-handed. Afterward, Trump writes on his social media platform Truth Social that the front lines should “stop where they are.”
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Hungarian authorities confirm they are prepared to host Vladimir Putin despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him. “We will ensure that he enters Hungary, has successful negotiations here, and then returns home,” Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó tells reporters.
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Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev says his government is prepared to allow Vladimir Putin’s plane to cross Bulgarian airspace en route to Budapest. “If efforts are being made toward achieving peace, and if a meeting is a condition for that, then it’s only logical that it should be organized by all possible means,” he tells Bulgarian National Radio. When asked whether this means Bulgaria would grant Putin an air corridor, Georgiev responds, “How could the meeting take place if one of the participants can’t attend?”
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E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says that while “it’s good if Russia stops this war,” and the United States could use its influence to bring Moscow to the negotiating table, it’s “not nice to see” someone who’s wanted by the ICC coming to a European country.
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Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski says that if Vladimir Putin’s aircraft were to pass through Polish airspace, it could be forced to land — and then the Russian president would be arrested under the ICC warrant. “We cannot guarantee that an independent court would not oblige the government to stop such a plane to deliver the suspect to The Hague,” Sikorski tells Radio Rodzina. He adds that Moscow is surely aware of the risk and would likely chart an alternate route. Sikorski also says he hopes Ukraine will take part in any eventual summit.
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The British government publishes a joint statement by European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky backing Trump’s call to halt the hostilities in Ukraine along the current front line. “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 statement reads. “We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force.”
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine contradict the agreements reached during Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. “Now we’re hearing from Washington that everything must stop immediately, that there’s no need to discuss anything further. Stop — and let history judge later. But if everything simply stops, it means forgetting about the root causes of this conflict, which the U.S. administration under Donald Trump clearly understood when it came to power,” Lavrov says.
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A senior White House official says that a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest is not planned “in the immediate future,” Reuters reports. According to NBC News, which also cites a senior White House official, preparations for the meeting have been put “on hold.” The source says Trump believes that “both sides aren’t ready enough to talk to justify moving forward right now.”
Later, Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev says preparations for the Putin–Trump meeting are still underway. “The media are distorting comments about the ‘immediate future’ to undermine the upcoming summit,” Dmitriev claims.
