Moscow denies reports of cancelled preparations for Putin-Trump meeting

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and a member of the Kremlin's negotiation team, has denied Western media reports claiming that preparations for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have been halted. He said that preparations for the summit in Budapest are ongoing.

Dmitriev claimed that the media were "twisting comments" from White House sources about the suspension of preparations for the Putin-Trump meeting in Budapest in order to undermine the summit.

"Preparations continue," he said on X.

He also shared a post from Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, who said that supporters of war would try to create an information backdrop to disrupt the meeting.

Western news agencies have reported unofficially that after a conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Russian side handed the US an informal document repeating its previous maximalist demands for ending the war against Ukraine.

Russia's rejection of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine has cast doubt on the planned Budapest meeting between Trump and Putin.

An unnamed White House official told reporters that the US no longer sees the need for a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which had been planned as part of preparations for the leader-level summit.