Shafaq News – Washington

A planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, initially set for Budapest to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine, may face delays, a White House official reported on Tuesday.

According to CNN, the official noted that another planned session between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been “suspended for now.”

Following an earlier phone call with Putin, Trump announced that “a gathering of senior advisers” would take place soon. On Truth Social, he highlighted that Rubio, “along with a number of other selected individuals, will lead the United States’ preliminary discussions.”

The reason for the delay in the Rubio-Lavrov meeting remains unclear. One source indicated that the two ministers held differing expectations regarding the prospects for ending the conflict in Ukraine.

It has been more than two months since Trump’s last in-person summit with Putin in Alaska, which lasted nearly three hours and concluded without an agreement, though both leaders acknowledged progress achieved during the talks.

Since then, Trump has publicly urged Moscow and Kyiv to “end the war immediately,” stressing the need to monitor the battlefield and warning that without action, the situation could become “very complicated.”

On the ground escalations continue, with Russia and Ukraine launching heavy overnight assaults. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that its air defenses intercepted 32 Ukrainian drones over Crimea, 12 over the Black Sea, eight over Bryansk, and three over Kursk.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military recorded 202 combat engagements in the past 24 hours, including two Russian missiles, 63 airstrikes, nearly 4,364 artillery rounds, and more than 4,335 kamikaze drones. The fiercest battles took place near Volodymyrivka, with additional clashes in Molodetske, Oleksandrograd, Piddubne, and Vorone, estimating Russian losses at 1,130 personnel, eight tanks, 37 artillery systems, and over 230 drones.