Russia says no timeframe set for Trump-Putin summit

MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday said there was “no precise timeframe” for a summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on Ukraine and doused hopes for a swift preparatory meeting to finalise the talks.

Following a phone call last week, the Russian and US leaders Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump announced they would meet in Budapest for talks on resolving the war in Ukraine, triggered by Moscow’s February 2022 all-out offensive.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US counterpart Marco Rubio spoke on Monday to discuss preparations for the summit, and are expected to meet in person to finalise details.

Trump said the meeting with 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, including from AFP, at a briefing on Tuesday.

Asked if the summit could be postponed, Peskov said: “You can’t postpone something that hasn’t been set in stone … Preparation is needed, serious preparation.”

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier on Tuesday it was “premature” to talk about details of a preparatory meeting between Lavrov and Rubio.

“Neither before the phone call nor during yesterday’s call was the meeting specifically raised,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agencies.

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.

A previous summit between Putin and Trump in Alaska ended early with no breakthrough towards a peace deal.

Ukraine says a meeting between Putin and Zelensky is needed to make progress, but the Kremlin has ruled out talks with the Ukrainian leader until a peace deal is practically agreed.