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An intended summit in Budapest between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was called off on Wednesday
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Donald Trump has said he will not meet with Vladimir Putin until he thinks a deal to secure peace between Russia and Ukraine is in place.
“You have to know that we’re going to make a deal, I’m not going to be wasting my time,” the US president told reporters in Doha on Saturday.
It comes after Mr Trump said earlier this week he did not want to have a “wasted meeting” with Putin, after officials concluded that the gap between the two sides was too big to begin negotiations on peace in Ukraine.
An intended summit in Budapest, Hungary, between the pair was to take place in the coming weeks, but was put on hold on Wednesday. “It just it didn’t feel right to me,” said Mr Trump. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it.”
As well as calling off the meeting, the Trump administration also unleashed new sanctions against Russia’s biggest oil companies, as part of a push for Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
But Putin responded by saying he would never bow to US pressure, despite admitting the sanctions could cause economic pain.
Four children were among 14 people injured in Russia’s overnight air attack on Kyiv, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said this morning.
“Everyone is receiving medical assistance, some have been hospitalised,” the administration said on Telegram.
Two high-rise residential buildings were hit as a result of the attack, mayor Vitali Klitschko said earlier.
He did not say whether there was a direct hit on the buildings or if it was falling debris from destroyed weapons that fell onto the apartment complexes.
Ukrainian forces operating behind enemy lines derailed Russia’s hopes of reconnecting the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station before Vladimir Putin’s birthday earlier this month, sources have claimed.
Ukrainian sources told The Guardian that they believed Russia was trying to bring power back to the plant in time for the president’s birthday on 7 October, after it lost external power in late September.
Europe’s largest power station, which has been in Russian control since early in the invasion, was forced to operate on diesel backup generators after its last remaining external power line was severed on 23 September. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other.
Russian air defence systems destroyed a drone heading towards Moscow, the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin, said this morning.
Kirill Dmitriev, Mr Putin’s envoy for investment and economic co-operation, said on Friday that Russia, the US and Ukraine were “quite close to a diplomatic solution” to end the three-year war.
Speaking to CNN after arriving in Washington for talks with US officials, he said a planned summit in Budapest between Mr Trump and Mr Putin had not been cancelled but was likely to occur later.
Mr Trump said on Tuesday that his plan for a swift meeting with Mr Putin was on hold because he did not want it to be a “waste of time”.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov made clear in public comments on Tuesday that Russia is opposed to an immediate ceasefire.
Large clouds of smoke were seen over Kyiv on Saturday morning as firefighters raced to put out fires across the city.
As of midday, they had localized one fire in a 13,000 square metre (140,000 sq. ft) warehouse with the help of two helicopters, and had put out a fire in another building.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks highlighted the importance of Patriot air defence systems in protecting Ukrainian cities from Russia’s continuous attacks.
“Since the beginning of this year alone, Russia has launched about 770 ballistic missiles and more than 50 ‘Kinzhal’ missiles at Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
The Patriot systems have proven effective at destroying Russian ballistic missiles and Ukraine is currently seeking a contract to buy 25 Patriot air defence systems from the U.S.
Ukraine’s air force downed four of nine missiles and 50 of 62 drones launched in the overnight attacks, it said on Telegram.
The air force reported five direct missile hits and 12 drone hits on 11 sites around the country.
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