WASHINGTON/MOSCOW – The highly anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a meeting closely watched by the world, has been indefinitely postponed, sources confirmed on Wednesday.
The sudden postponement is reportedly the direct result of an intractable logistical and security crisis, sparked by a formal warning from Poland that it would be obligated to enforce an international arrest warrant for President Putin if his aircraft entered its sovereign airspace.
This diplomatic and legal standoff has thrown the summit—seen as a central, if controversial, part of the Trump administration's effort to forge a new dialogue with Moscow—into chaos.
The meeting was reportedly being planned in a European capital, with sources pointing to Budapest, Hungary. This choice of venue was already contentious, as Hungary is the only EU nation to maintain relatively warm relations with Moscow. However, the geography of the trip proved to be the critical flaw.
For President Putin to fly from Moscow to Budapest, his plane would almost certainly need to cross the airspace of countries like Poland or Slovakia. Poland, a NATO member, staunch Ukrainian ally, and signatory to the Rome Statute, publicly reiterated its legal obligation to execute the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Putin.
The ICC warrant, issued in 2023, accuses the Russian leader of war crimes related to the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.
Poland’s warning effectively presented the Russian delegation with an impossible choice: either cancel the trip or risk an unprecedented international incident that could involve the interception of the Russian presidential plane. European Union officials had also privately expressed their disapproval of any member state hosting Putin, further complicating the logistics.
The summit was being closely monitored for its potential impact on the war in Ukraine. President Trump has been vocal about his belief that he can mediate an end to the conflict through direct, personal diplomacy. This approach has caused significant anxiety in Kyiv and among many NATO allies, who fear that a bilateral U.S.-Russia deal could be negotiated "over their heads" and might pressure Ukraine to cede territory in exchange for peace.
Conversely, both Russia and Ukraine have publicly stated that their core conditions for peace remain unchanged, with no sign of compromise from either side.
The postponement represents a significant setback for this diplomatic track and highlights the practical realities of President Putin's diplomatic isolation from the West. Even with a willing U.S. counterpart, the legal and security framework established by European nations in response to the war has made high-level, in-person diplomacy on the continent all but impossible for the Russian leader.