Trump Cancels Planned Summit With Putin
Washington DC: In a striking display of growing frustration, US President Donald Trump has reportedly called off a planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow laid out sweeping demands that Washington deemed tantamount to Ukraine’s surrender.
According to a Financial Times report, Russia recently sent a memo to the Trump administration listing Putin’s conditions to end the war — demands cloaked as addressing the “root causes” but effectively requiring Kyiv to forfeit its sovereignty.
Following the memo, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a tense conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, concluding that Putin had no real interest in peace talks. Based on this assessment, Trump scrapped the summit he had earlier announced after speaking with Putin, the FT reported.
Putin’s Terms: Ukraine’s Sovereignty on the Line
The Russian leader’s long-standing “root cause” conditions include formal recognition of all territories occupied by Russia since 2014 — Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — along with unoccupied regions Moscow still claims. He has also demanded the creation of a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory, which some Russian officials, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have depicted as encompassing nearly the entire country.
Further echoing post–World War I restrictions on Germany, Putin seeks to limit the size and capability of Ukraine’s military, block its entry into NATO, and bar foreign troops from operating on Ukrainian soil.
Beyond the territorial and military demands, Putin’s proposed “social reforms” would forcibly realign Ukraine’s identity with Russia’s — reintroducing Russian as an official language, reinstating the pro-Moscow Orthodox Church, and outlawing what he labels “nationalist formations.”
Analysts: Putin Dragging Talks to Buy Time
Experts say the Russian leader’s hardline stance is designed to stall peace negotiations while his forces press their offensive. “Such conditions are unacceptable for Ukraine,” said Kseniya Kirillova of the Washington DC-based Jamestown Foundation. “Putin is deliberately setting impossible terms to prolong the war, hoping a summer offensive will break Ukraine’s resolve. Ukraine can only hope Trump’s patience runs out sooner than that.”
