US President Donald Trump's decision to impose hard-hitting sanctions against Russia's leading oil companies is an indication of his deepening frustration with the Kremlin's failure to take his ceasefire proposals seriously.
After the success he achieved in negotiating the release of Israeli hostages in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners earlier this month, Trump said he was keen to bring his peace-making skills to bear on the long-running Ukraine conflict.
In an attempt to break the impasse that has dogged his previous attempts to implement a ceasefire in Gaza, Trump agreed to have yet another lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to resume negotiations on ending the deadlock.
But while the initial indications from Trump's two-hour conversation with the Russian leader suggested progress might be possible on implementing a ceasefire, it soon became clear that, for all Putin's encouraging comments, there had been no significant change in the Russians' uncompromising position on the ceasefire terms.
The Kremlin's refusal to compromise on key issues, such as the complex land for peace formula that forms the basis of Trump's ceasefire proposals, was made abundantly clear during subsequent discussions between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov.
During discussions between the two top diplomats, Lavrov made it clear that Moscow had no intention of compromising on its maximalist positions on ending the war in Ukraine.
Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow that he had informed Rubio that Russia's position—that a peace agreement must come before a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine—had not changed. According to US media reports, Lavrov became "exercised” during the call with Rubio and made little effort to respond positively to the Trump administration's ceasefire plans.
The failure of the Lavrov-Rubio talks to make significant progress has now resulted in Trump cancelling the face-to-face summit with Putin in Budapest next month that had been proposed initially following the phone call.
"I don’t want to have a wasted meeting; I don't want to have a waste of time," Trump said after confirming the summit due to take place in the Hungarian capital had been shelved. He declined to give details about how the talks broke down, saying he would "see what happens" as events unfolded.
