Ukraine updates: Trump-Putin meeting plans shelved

US President Donald Trump has said his plan for a meeting in the near future with Russia's Vladimir Putin was on hold because he didn't want it to be a "waste of time."

Trump made the remarks to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

The decision to hold off on the potential meeting in Budapest, which Trump had announced last week, was made after a call Monday between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Russia appeared to be in no rush either. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that a Trump-Putin summit "needed preparation... serious preparation." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been trying to strengthen Ukraine's position by acquiring long-range Tomahawk missiles from the US, although Trump has so far not agreed to deliver the weapons.

"We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace," Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a Telegram post.

A planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary has been put on hold, the Reuters and AFP news agencies cited anonymous US officials as saying.

The decision was reportedly made following a phone call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there was no urgency for the two leaders to meet, adding that "serious preparation" was needed. He stressed that there had been no formal postponement of the meeting, as no specific date had yet been finalized.

Both European leaders and Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have accused Putin of stalling for time by dragging out diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Moscow has demanded Kyiv make territorial concessions before any ceasefire deal is reached.

Trump met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska on August 15. Few concrete results of the results of the summit were made public, and no mention was made of a ceasefire or steps toward one.

Russia has launched an overnight attack on Kyiv, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital and Ukraine's Air Force said Wednesday.

Vitali Klitscho said Ukraine's air defense units were trying to repel the attacks.

"Stay in shelters!" Klitschko posted on Telegram.

Klitschko added that the city was being targeted with ballistic missiles, and that a fire had broken out following an explosion in a district in southern Kyiv.

Ukraine's Air Force said ballistic missiles and drones were being launched in the attacks, which were targeting several regions, including Kharkiv, Kherson and Odesa, in addition to the capital, Kyiv.

On Tuesday, numerous Russian bombardments of energy infrastructure left hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine's Chernihiv region without power and some without water.

Officials have added the threat of drone strikes have since hampered repairs, with the regional capital having lost all of its electricity supply.

It is the latest attack, which also struck neighboring Sumy region is just the latest in a series of Russian strikes targeting the Ukrainian energy grid ahead of winter. 

"Emergency crews in the Chernihiv region are unable to begin work on restoring power supply due to continuous attacks by Russian drones," a statement from the energy minister on Telegram said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later wrote repairs were underway. saying: "Russia's tactics are to murder people and terrorise them with the cold."

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha added on X,  "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin pretends to be ready for diplomacy and peace negotiations, while in reality this night Russia launched a brutal missile and drone attack."

Moscow has sharply increased the frequency of air attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks, leaving areas in darkness for hours, sometimes days.  

The International Ski Federation (FIS) said Tuesday that Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be able to compete in its disciplines at next year's Winter Olympics, due to take place in Milan and Cortina.

Competitors in skiing and snowboarding from Russia and Belarus have been banned from FIS events since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but they had hoped to take part under a neutral banner in the winter version of the Games.

"The FIS Council convened this Tuesday and voted not to facilitate the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) in FIS qualification events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games," the FIS said.

In the 2022 Beijing Games, Russia won almost a third of all cross-country skiing medals.

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will take place between February 6 and February 22 next year.

Ukraine's military said Tuesday its forces had struck a "key" chemical plant in southern Russia's Bryansk region.

A statement by the General Staff said the plant was hit in a combined attack by missiles and air strikes, successfully penetrating Russian air defenses.

The plant produces gunpowder, explosives and rocket fuel.

Poland's intelligence service detained eight people accused of sabotage operations on behalf of Russia, Polish authorities said.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in an X post that the suspects were detained in various parts of the country over the past several days.

A spokesperson for intelligence coordinator Tomasz Siemioniak said that one of the suspects was a 21-year-old Ukrainian citizen.

Two accomplices of his, also Ukrainian nationals and aged 21 and 24, were apprehended in Romania.

They are suspected of having carried out "reconnaissance of military facilities and critical infrastructure," according to Siemioniak.

Romania's domestic intelligence service said that two of the suspects had handed over two packages containing explosive devices at the Bucharest office of Ukrainian courier company Nova Post.

Romanian intelligence said its agents had defused the devices.

With expectations building on US President Donald Trump's next face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, European leaders have said current battle lines in Ukraine must be the starting point for any peace talks.

After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last week, Trump is expected to meet with Putin in Budapest within the next weeks.

In a statement on Tuesday, the leaders of European powers including Britain, Germany and the EU, said they "strongly support President Trump's position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations." 

After meeting with Zelenskyy last Friday, Trump publicly endorsed Ukraine's position that an immediate ceasefire should take place at current battle lines for the first time.

Moscow has said it wants Ukraine to cede more territory as one of several conditions it has raised for a ceasefire.

The summit between Trump and Putin has also hit a snag with the preliminary meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, that had been expected to take place on Thursday in Budapest, was postponed.

Russia rained drones on Ukraine's energy facilities once again on Tuesday, having targeted the Chernihiv region in northeastern Ukraine.

People were left without power and some without water, authorities said. The region has faced fiery assaults in recent weeks as Russia ramps up attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Plus, European leaders, including Germany, issued a joint statement to support President Donald Trump's position on ending the fighting between Ukraine and Russia.

Keep reading for updates on Russia's war in Ukraine, which is now in its fourth year.