Donald Trump’s administration recently announced a forthcoming meeting between the American president and Russian leader Vladimir Putin to take place in Hungary. High-level talks from representatives of both the United States and Russia were to set up such a meeting in the near future.
Within a few days, such a meeting was no more. The Kremlin announced it had never agreed to it. Trump, on the other hand, implied Russia had cancelled the meeting. Since then, Trump has argued any meeting with Putin would be a “waste of time” without a peace agreement in hand.
While tempting to see this as a brief “what could have been,” it really highlights how Putin manages his relationship with Trump — to the detriment of Ukraine.
Personalized politics
Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky each see the US as playing a critical role in the eventual outcome of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Putin wants Russia to again be perceived as a great power, equal in stature to the United States. To meet these ends, Putin has used personalized politics with Trump, recognizing that Trump seems to admire him.
Putin plays to Trump’s ego; after he met Trump in Alaska in August, Trump shared in follow-up interviews how Putin agreed with Trump’s concerns about mail-in ballots in American elections.
In October, he praised Trump’s supposed peacemaking capabilities after he was not named the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Putin, privately and publicly, praises Trump or supports him on political issues important to the president, ensuring he remains in Trump’s good graces.
Putin then uses his discussions with Trump to share Russian talking points about why Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, to share Russia’s weaponization of history to justify its claims on Ukraine or to explain “the root causes of the conflict” in Russia’s eyes.
In the aftermath of these direct calls and meetings, Trump tends to parrot these Russian talking points publicly and in meetings with other leaders, as he did in February and August.
He did so again on October 17, 2025, when Trump met with Zelensky and reportedly argued with him, claiming Ukraine would be destroyed by Russia if it did not agree to Putin’s demands.
Putin’s three aims
Putin does all this for three purposes.
First, it strains the American relationship with Ukraine. Recall the infamous meeting between Zelensky, Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance in the Oval Office in February, which took place after Trump first spoke with Putin.
Second, it often delays or ends certain supports Ukraine hopes to obtain from its American allies. Take the now-aborted Hungarian summit — it was announced the day before Zelensky was going to meet Trump to discuss the Ukrainian purchase of Tomahawk missiles. After their meeting, there was no such agreement.
With this new potential long-range threat off the table, the Kremlin apparently saw no reason to continue the charade.
Third, Putin aims to strain the American-European alliance. Since February 2022, generally speaking, Europe and the United States have been united in their support for Ukraine. But Trump’s pronouncements criticizing European nations for their defense spending — along with Trump’s perceived closer ties to Putin — have caused alarm.
When Trump met with Putin in Alaska, Ukraine and its allies feared peace terms favorable to Russia would be forced upon Ukrainians. When Zelensky met with Trump just days later, European leaders joined him, hoping to avoid catastrophe.
Instead, the meeting went well, and the US seemed to be in alignment with European leaders, including even, albeit briefly, offering American security guarantees in developing a possible peace plan.
This episode also highlights how Zelensky, too, has capitalized on personal meetings with Trump to his benefit. Ukraine still sees the US as an important ally and has tried to manage Trump’s transactional nature, signing a raw mineral deal and agreeing to purchase American weapons with NATO support.
Zelensky has also relied on personal meetings to mend the relationship. In April, he met privately with Trump at Pope Francis’s funeral, moving on from the aforementioned contentious Oval Office meeting.
In August, Zelensky aimed to make a positive impression to counter a potential pro-Russian meeting with Trump. He even wore a suit, a nod to one of the notable criticisms against him during the Oval Office meeting, as he showcased his willingness to play to Trump’s ego.
Because Trump has emphasized a desire to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine, both Putin and Zelensky have used this focus to manage their relationship with the American leader.
Another chapter in the Trump saga
Since the Hungarian meeting was postponed — or cancelled, depending on who you believe — the US has since implemented harsher sanctions on Russian oil companies and those who purchase Russian oil. Trump has also said he’s done “wasting his time” until Putin is serious about peace.
He’ll likely be waiting a long time. Putin has not seriously altered his demands in Ukraine at any point since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country more than three years ago.
There will likely be an actual meeting between Trump and Putin again in the future. While many are hopeful for peace, these episodes are more reflective of Putin’s ability to manage Trump when needed than any real desire to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Oleksa Drachewych is assistant professor in history, Western University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
