There are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in the immediate future, a White House official said Tuesday, a pivot after Mr. Trump suggested last week that he would meet his Russian counterpart soon in Budapest to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine.
Mr. Trump said last week that he planned on meeting with Mr. Putin after senior American and Russian officials spoke. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, then had a “productive call,” the official said.
It is unclear whether Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin are still discussing meeting in Budapest in the more distant future. Mr. Trump was unclear about a date for the meeting but indicated it would happen soon after senior officials from each country spoke.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said after Mr. Trump’s call with Mr. Putin last week that the Russian leader had committed to sitting down with Mr. Trump. Foreign policy experts, however, expressed concern that Mr. Trump was falling into a familiar cycle when it came to his approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On multiple occasions this year, Mr. Trump has come close to imposing more sanctions on Russia or giving powerful new military aid to Ukraine, only to speak with Mr. Putin and raise hopes for a diplomatic solution — so far with little to show for it.
Before his call with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump suggested he was ready to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles. But he decided against the move, for now, after speaking to both Mr. Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine last week.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
The post Trump Will Not Meet With Putin Soon, Official Says in a Reversal appeared first on New York Times.
