“Don’t waste my time”
Trump: No summit with Putin without a deal
October 26, 2025, 3:30 a.m
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Trump admits his disappointment over the collapsed summit with Putin. He will only meet with the Russian President when an agreement on Ukraine can be reached. Everything else is a waste of time.
US President Donald Trump has initially rejected further talks with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin as long as there is no agreement in sight to end the war in Ukraine. “I’m not going to waste my time,” Trump told reporters aboard the presidential plane Air Force One on the way to Asia. “I need to know that we will reach an agreement (on the Ukraine war),” Trump added.
The Republican’s efforts to persuade Putin to make peace in Ukraine had recently come to nothing. A planned summit with Putin in Budapest has been postponed indefinitely. “I’ve always had a great relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this was very disappointing,” Trump said. “I thought this would be settled before peace in the Middle East.” On Wednesday, the USA imposed sanctions on the two largest Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil in view of the lack of progress in efforts to hold Ukraine peace talks with Russia.
Recently, Ukraine’s Western allies tried to increase pressure on Russia. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called on allies on Friday to supply longer-range weapons to Ukraine. This week, the EU also announced new sanctions against Russia’s energy sector in a bid to weaken the country’s war economy.
White House has new sanctions in the drawer
While the US President is on his trip to Asia, his government has already prepared further sanctions. It could impose it on key sectors of the Russian economy if Putin continues to delay ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine. This was reported by Reuters, citing a US official and another person familiar with the matter.
US officials have also told their European counterparts that they support the EU using frozen Russian assets to buy US weapons for Kiev. There have also been initial internal discussions in Washington about using Russian assets held in the US to support the Ukrainian war effort, two US officials said.
A senior US official told Reuters he would like to see European countries take the next big step toward Russia. These could be additional sanctions or tariffs. Another source with knowledge of the administration’s internal dynamics said Trump would likely pause for several weeks to await Russia’s response to Wednesday’s sanctions announcement.
