In a Reversal, Trump Will Not Meet With Putin in Coming Weeks

The White House reversed itself on Tuesday and said that President Trump no longer planned to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in “the immediate future,” after Russian officials made clear they had no intention of making a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

The announcement punctured the rosy picture that Mr. Trump had presented just five days ago, after he spoke on the telephone with Mr. Putin and came away with a plan for a “pretty quick,” in-person meeting in Budapest to discuss ending the war.

“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday when asked why the meeting was put off. “I don’t want to have a wasted time, so I’ll see what happens.”

The back-and-forth is the latest example of the cycle between the two leaders, in which Mr. Trump teases some kind of diplomatic breakthrough, only to be pulled back by Mr. Putin. Mr. Trump has by turns courted the Russian leader and threatened him — but has never taken action to punish Russia in a meaningful way.

In the process, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine seems to lose any traction that he has built up with the United States.

“The question is, will Trump, and when will Trump, understand that to get results he wants, he has to put pressure on Putin?” said Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland and longtime senior U.S. diplomat. “Putin keeps playing him.”

After Mr. Trump spoke to Mr. Putin last week, he also backed off the possibility of selling long-range missiles to Ukraine that would allow Kyiv to strike deep into Russia, dashing Ukraine’s hopes of gaining the kind of leverage that would force Russia to negotiate.

The next day, Mr. Trump held a contentious meeting at the White House with Mr. Zelensky, who later told Europeans that Mr. Trump unsuccessfully pressed him to hand over territory to end the war — a development that would be on Russia’s terms.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s allies in Europe released a joint statement rejecting the prospect of territorial concessions.

“Russia’s stalling tactics have shown time and time again that Ukraine is the only party serious about peace,” the statement said. “We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction.”

At a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said he told Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call that Russia’s position on the war had not changed: that a peace deal must come before a cease-fire.

That strategy allows Mr. Putin to continue the war indefinitely, pending negotiations for a more concrete deal that could take years to reach.

“It is now being said from Washington that there is a need to stop immediately, that there is no need to discuss anything further, and that ‘history should judge,’” Mr. Lavrov said. “If we just stop, it means forgetting the root causes of this conflict, which the American administration clearly understood and voiced this understanding upon Trump’s assumption of power.”

After the call between Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Rubio, Mr. Trump’s aides believed an in-person meeting between the senior officials would not be necessary, according to two White House officials. While Mr. Trump’s aides left open the possibility of a meeting with Mr. Putin down the line, one White House official said there was no date on the books.

Some foreign policy experts expressed hope that Mr. Trump still had leverage in the talks with Moscow. The president could still hang over the Russians the threat of providing Ukraine with the long-range missiles, known as Tomahawks.

“He still has it, and Putin knows it,” said William B. Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said of that leverage.

But Mr. Taylor also acknowledged that Mr. Putin had prevented such a move from happening.

“Putin was worried about Tomahawks, asked for the phone call and at least delayed the Tomahawks,” Mr. Taylor said.

It was not the first time Mr. Trump had announced a summit before cementing the details.

Mr. Trump invited the Russian president to a meeting in Alaska over the summer, flipping the traditional diplomatic process on its head. Rather than have his senior officials work out the complex details of diplomacy, then announce a summit, Mr. Trump hosted a splashy meeting — only to leave without a deal.

This time, the number of disputes appeared to be too great, including whether there was ever a commitment for a meeting.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said last week that Mr. Putin had committed to sitting down with Mr. Trump. But Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said on Tuesday that the summit with Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin could not have been postponed because it was never really “finalized.”

Despite the breakdown, Mr. Trump said he still saw a chance for a cease-fire in Ukraine. “I came in and I have to see if I can put it out,” he said of Russia’s war.

The president also said he expected to have another update on his approach to Russia and Ukraine in “the next two days.” Mr. Trump will often tease an announcement in “two weeks” or a couple days, only to extend his deadline again and again.