"A day later Trump held a tense meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and made clear he wants both Russia and Ukraine to stop the war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also expected to meet within days with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, ahead of the leaders summit. A phone call between Rubio and Lavrov on Monday ended with no agreement on a meeting or progress toward a summit between Putin and Trump."
""Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Lavrov had a productive call. Therefore, an additional-in-person meeting between the Secretary and Foreign Minister is not necessary," a White House official said. The other side: Earlier on Tuesday, The Kremlin and the Russian foreign ministry downplayed the prospect for a leaders summit or even for a meeting between Rubio and Lavrov, stressing more preparations are needed. The Kremlin said there was never a date set for a Trump-Putin summit. "You can't postpone what was not scheduled," a Putin spokesman said."
"Zelensky, who is going to meet with European leaders later this week, said on Tuesday that Ukraine agreed to Trump's proposal to stop the fighting according to the current line of contact, but stressed Russia rejected it. "Russia is again doing everything to avoid diplomacy," he said. Zelensky has claimed that supplying Ukraine with long-range weaponry, like Tomahawk missiles, could force Putin to the negotiation table."
A White House official said no plans exist for a near-term meeting between President Trump and President Putin. Trump earlier said he would meet Putin in Budapest within two weeks. Trump met Ukrainian President Zelensky and urged Russia and Ukraine to stop the war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but the call produced no agreement on a leaders' summit; the White House called the call productive and said an additional in-person meeting was unnecessary. The Kremlin said no summit date was ever set and downplayed summit prospects. Zelensky said Ukraine accepted Trump's proposal to halt fighting along the current line of contact but Russia rejected it and is avoiding diplomacy.
Read at Axios
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