Kyiv – Washington: Europe and the Arabs

The United States has canceled the planned summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after Russia sent a memorandum to Washington insisting on stringent demands to end the war with Ukraine. The Financial Times reported this, citing sources.

Earlier this month, Trump and Putin agreed by phone to meet in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss how to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

A few days later, the Russian Foreign Ministry sent a memorandum insisting on demands such as territorial concessions, a significant reduction in Ukrainian forces, and guarantees that the country would not join NATO.

The US subsequently canceled the summit after a phone call between Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Marco Rubio. Following the call, Rubio informed Trump that Moscow had shown no willingness to negotiate, according to a source who spoke to the Times. According to the sources, Trump remains open to meeting with the Russians “anytime and anywhere he thinks progress can be made.” According to a report by the Brussels-based European news network Euronews, this comes after Russia launched a large-scale air and missile attack early Thursday morning targeting energy facilities and residential areas in ten Ukrainian regions. The attack resulted in the deaths of four civilians, including two children, and injured dozens more. A widespread power outage affected most of the country and lasted until late that day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the attack involved the use of "more than 650 drones and more than 50 missiles of various types," noting that the targets included "energy facilities and ordinary homes." He also mentioned that two people were killed in the city of Zaporizhzhia as a result of direct shelling of residential buildings. In his post on the X platform, the Ukrainian president emphasized that Russia "continues its terrorist war against life itself," calling on the international community to make every attack on civilians a direct cause for imposing tangible consequences on Moscow.

He said that "what is happening cannot go unanswered," indicating the necessity for these atrocities against civilians to be translated into action. "Effective sanctions and tangible pressure."

He expressed Ukraine's reliance on the United States, Europe, and the G7 countries "not to turn a blind eye to Russia's intent to destroy everything," calling for new steps to increase pressure, particularly by targeting the Russian oil and gas industry, striking at the country's financial system, and imposing secondary sanctions on entities and individuals who finance this war. He concluded his remarks by thanking "all those working for peace."