The actual reason for the cancellation of Donald Trump's meeting with Putin amid rising WW3 concerns

Donald Trump had discussed meeting Vladimir Putin in person

The planned meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin has been called off, with the US president providing an explanation for the decision.

In August, the two leaders met in Alaska, but the talks ended without progress on achieving peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Following their meeting, Trump had a phone conversation with Putin, which the President described as 'extremely frank and trustful'.

The two had planned to meet in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks for direct discussions on a ceasefire.

However, the meeting is currently off, with the White House stating that there are 'no plans' for Trump and Putin to meet in the 'immediate future'.

Preparations for the meeting were ultimately canceled after the Kremlin postponed a preliminary discussion between Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

Donald Trump had earlier mentioned a potential meeting with Vladimir Putin following their conference in Alaska (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

A White House spokesperson stated on Tuesday (October 21): "Another in-person meeting between the secretary and foreign minister is unnecessary, and there are no immediate plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin."

Meanwhile, Lavrov commented: "Russia's position remains unchanged from the agreements reached during the Alaska summit," emphasizing that Russia is only interested in 'long-term, sustainable peace'.

Trump later disclosed that face-to-face discussions had been canceled as he did not want to engage in a 'wasted meeting'.

When reporters at the Oval Office inquired about the meeting being 'put on hold', the 79-year-old responded: "No, no I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to waste time, so I'll see what happens."

Trump and Putin were scheduled to meet in Budapest (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

He went on to mention that they accomplished 'all of these great peace deals', adding: "But this one, and I said go to the line, go to the line of battle. The battlefield lines, and you pull back and you go home and everybody takes some time off, so we'll see what happens."

The US president endorsed a proposed ceasefire plan on Monday (October 20) that would freeze the conflict at the current front line - a proposal also supported by Kyiv and European leaders.

"Let it be cut the way it is," Trump stated (via the BBC). "I said: cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people."

However, Putin has continued to resist this proposed peace plan, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stating that 'the consistency of Russia's position doesn't change'.

This follows a report by the Financial Times suggesting that tensions arose between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the latter's visit to the White House last week.