The Financial Times is out with more reporting Friday on why the United States canceled a planned summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest earlier this month. The FT report says Moscow issued sweeping demands on Ukraine, according to sources privy to the conversations, and that ultimately this ‘annoyed’ President Trump, who opted to listen to those admin officials calling for a firmer position in support of Ukraine.
Also, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told Trump that Moscow was “showing no willingness to negotiate” after he held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Russia has reportedly made clear that a precondition for lasting peace rests on significant territorial concessions in the east.
Trump “was not impressed with their position,” FT quoted one source as saying, who also explained the president remains open to meeting Russian leaders only “when and where he thinks there can be progress.”
However, the ‘demands’ from the Russian side shouldn’t have come as any surprise, given also Russian forces have the initiative on the ground in the east. A “root causes” of the conflict memo laying out Moscow’s position demanded Ukraine give up large parts of its territory, cut its troops and forever abandon plans to join NATO.
President Putin has meanwhile emphasized that the planned Russian-American summit in Budapest was postponed and not canceled.
Russia seems to want to keep dialogue with Washington as positive as possible, and wants to present ‘progress’ in bilateral relations, while downplaying ongoing disagreements.
The reality remains that President Trump is trying to negotiate in favor of the Zelensky government, while Zelensky’s own forces have little to no leverage over the military situation. Russia knows it is in the driver’s seat on the ground, despite Ukraine’s unrelenting cross-border drone attacks on oil refineries. And yet the mainstream media still floats simplistic narratives and mythologies like the following:
Russian foreign ministry allegedly sent a memo to Washington outlining how Putin was still calling for the supposed “root causes” of his invasion to be addressed – even though the West widely believes he invaded Ukraine in a land grab.
President Putin has floated the idea of a “ceasefire for journalists” to allow them to reach the frontlines and report honestly on the situation.
Hellbound and Down 