Media: US state secretary-Russian foreign minister meeting postponed

The meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov which was scheduled for this week has been postponed for unknown reasons. This casts doubt on whether the planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin will take place.

A White House source speaking to CNN said that the anticipated meeting between Rubio and Lavrov had been delayed, at least for the time being.

Earlier, 23 October was mentioned as a possible date for their meeting. They were supposed to prepare for a new personal meeting between Trump and Putin in Budapest.

No specific reasons for the postponement have been given. However, one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is due to the very different views of Rubio and Lavrov on ending the Russo-Ukrainian war.

According to one source, their recent conversation showed that the Russians have not significantly softened their maximalist demands. As a result, Rubio is unlikely to recommend moving forward with plans for a Trump-Putin meeting. Sources suggest that the US secretary of state will probably speak with Lavrov again this week.

Trump spoke with Putin on 16 October for the first time in nearly two months. Following the conversation, he announced plans for a meeting in Budapest, which would be Putin's first appearance in an EU capital since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The call took place ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Washington for talks with Trump, in which a key topic was the possible provision of Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.

According to media reports, during the meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump pressed him to accept Russia's conditions and also discussed providing security guarantees for both Kyiv and Russia, which unsettled the Ukrainian delegation.

Meanwhile, Trump denied urging Zelenskyy to hand over all of Donbas to Russia.