Trump-Putin summit cancelled after Moscow sent memo to Washington, FT reports

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(Reuters) -The United States cancelled a planned Budapest summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russia’s firm stance on hardline demands regarding Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The decision came after a tense call between the two countries’ top diplomats, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the FT report. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials in the Russian government were not immediately available for comment.

Plans for a summit in Budapest this month between Trump and Putin were put on hold after Moscow stuck to demands, including that Ukraine cede more territory as a condition for a ceasefire.

Trump has backed Ukraine’s call for an immediate ceasefire on current lines.

Days after Trump and Putin had agreed to meet in the Hungarian capital to discuss how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry sent a memo to Washington underlining the same demands to address what Putin calls the “root causes” of his invasion, which include territorial concessions, a steep reduction of Ukraine’s armed forces and guarantees it will never join NATO, the newspaper reported.

The U.S. then cancelled the summit following a call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after which Rubio told Trump that Moscow was showing no willingness to negotiate, the FT report added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this month that while Ukraine is ready for peace talks, it will not withdraw its troops from additional territory first as Moscow demanded.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Raju Gopalakrishnan)