Trump cancels planned Putin meeting, says ‘It didn’t feel right’

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he canceled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing that “it didn’t feel right” to proceed with the summit amid rising tensions between Washington and Moscow.

“We canceled the meeting with President Putin — it didn’t feel right to me,” Trump told reporters at the White House alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get, so I canceled it. But we’ll do it in the future,” News.Az reports, citing foreign media

Trump voiced frustration over the lack of progress in efforts to end the war in Ukraine, saying that despite productive talks, discussions with Putin have failed to yield results.

“Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” he said.

The remarks came shortly after Washington imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, accusing Moscow of showing a “lack of serious commitment” to peace negotiations.

When asked why he decided to escalate sanctions now, Trump said, “I just felt it was time. We’ve waited a long time,” adding that the new measures are “tremendous” but could be lifted if progress is made.

“We hope that they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled,” he said.

Addressing Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk cruise missiles, Trump appeared to reject the idea, arguing that the long-range weapons are too complex for Ukrainian forces to operate without significant U.S. involvement.

“The problem with the Tomahawk … it’ll take a minimum of six months, usually a year, to learn how to use them. They’re highly complex,” Trump explained. “So the only way the Tomahawk is going to be shot is if we shoot it, and we’re not going to do that.”

He emphasized that the missiles are “very powerful, very accurate,” but training others to use them would take “too far out into the future.”

 

News.Az