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US and Russian leaders were reported to be meeting in Budapest this week to discuss Ukraine
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The proposed summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin has been called off, after the White House has been left dismayed by Moscow’s refusal to budge on the Ukraine war.
A preparatory meeting between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov expected in Budapest on Thursday has also been postponed due to differences in opinion on a ceasefire.
A White House official told The Independent on Tuesday that there are no plans for the presidential summit in the “immediate future”.
European leaders have called on Mr Trump to demand an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine based on present battle lines. But Putin has been telling his US counterpart that he wants Kyiv to hand over the entirety of the Donbas.
Two senior European diplomats told Reuters the postponement of the Rubio-Lavrov meeting suggested the US is reluctant to carry out with a Trump-Putin summit unless Moscow yields from its maximalist demands.
Earlier in the day, Russia had admitted it has “no idea” when a highly-anticipated summit between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin will take place.
Russian attacks have let hundreds of thousands of people without power in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said that the regional capital, also called Chernihiv, and the northern part of the province had lost all electricity supply after strikes on power facilities.
Reuters said that the outages had seen hundreds of residents go to “invincibility points” – tents with stoves and generators set up by authorities to give locals access to hear and electricity.
Ukraine’s parliament has voted to amend the country’s budget for this year, raising defence spending to a record level as the war with Russia dragged on into its fourth year.
Lawmakers approved the increase of about $7.7 billion, raising Ukraine’s defence spending to a total of about $70.86 billion this year.
“We understand that the situation is constantly changing, and it is a forced necessity to increase spending to resist aggression effectively,” Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said.
“The government, with the support of the partners, has the sources to secure additional spending for Ukraine’s defenders.”
The external power supply at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine is expected to be restored by Saturday, the Russian-installed management told Reuters.
Repair work began at the plant, which has had no power since late September, on October 18. The plant currently produces no electricity, but needs power to ensure fuel in the reactors remains cool and no meltdown occurs.
Russian troops seized the plant – Europe’s largest, with six reactors – soon after the conflict in Ukraine began in 2022.
The White House is walking back President Donald Trump’s plan for talks on ending the four-year-old Russian war against Ukraine just days after he claimed he would meet with Vladimir Putin in Budapest next month.
A White House official told The Independent there are “no plans” for a sit-down between Trump and Putin “in the immediate future” because Secretary of State Marco Rubio had conducted a “productive call” with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov which made an in-person meeting between the two top diplomats “not necessary.”
News of the scrapped meeting plans comes just days after what Trump described as a similarly “productive” call with Putin on the eve of last Friday’s visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Our White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg reports:
As we reported earlier, European nations are working with Ukraine on a 12-point proposal to end Russia’s war along current battle lines.
Here is what we know about the plan, as reported by Bloomberg News.
Botox is widely known to iron out wrinkles, but it could also help ease phantom limb pain in Ukrainian war amputees, researchers have found.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians have lost limbs since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Most amputees experience some degree of stump pain or “phantom limb” pain, where the patient can still feel real pain in the amputated limb.
But a study led by Northwestern Medicine and Ukrainian physicians, which involved 160 amputees treated at two hospitals in western Ukraine between 2022 and 2024, revealed this pain could be significantly reduced using Botox.
Read our full story below.
Two senior European diplomats have weighed in on the postponement of the meeting between Russian and US foreign ministers Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio.
The move may be a sign that the Americans could be reluctant to go ahead with a Trump-Putin summit unless Moscow yields from its demands, they told Reuters news agency.
“I guess the Russians wanted too much and it became evident for the Americans that there will be no deal for Trump in Budapest,” said one.
The Russians “haven’t at all changed their position, and are not agreeing to ‘stop where they are’,” said the second diplomat. “And I assume Lavrov gave the same spiel, and Rubio was like: ‘See you later’.”
European nations are working with Ukraine on a 12-point proposal to end Russia’s war along current battle lines, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
A peace board chaired by US president Donald Trump would oversee the implementation of the proposed plan, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Under the plan, Ukraine would receive security guarantees, funds to repair war damage, and a clear pathway to rapidly join the EU, the report added.
There are no plans for US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin to meet “in the immediate future,” a senior White House official said on Tuesday, days after Trump floated another summit with his Russian counterpart.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also have no plans to meet in person, the official told The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg, saying their call on Monday was “productive.”
The preparatory meeting was postponed due to differences in opinion on the ceasefire.
European leaders have called on Mr Trump to demand an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine based on present battle lines, but Putin has repeatedly demanded that Kyiv cede more land.
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