'He's Been Played By Putin Again': Top Diplomat Mocks Trump After Ukraine Peace Talks Collapse

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August.A former top diplomat said Donald Trump “has been played” by Vladimir Putin after planned peace talks between the pair to end the Ukraine war collapsed.The US president had wanted to meet his Russian counterpart in Budapest.But in a major humiliation for Trump, the proposed summit was dramatically called off after Moscow refused to accept America’s terms for a ceasefire.“An immediate ceasefire in Ukraine would mean only one thing: most of it would remain under Nazi rule,” said Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov following a phone call with US secretary of state Marco Rubio.The White House admitted on Tuesday night that Trump and Putin would not be meeting “in the immediate future”.Trump had talked up the chances of another peace summit with Putin after the pair spoke on the phone last week.Trump, who had hinted that America could sell long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv, then had another White House bust-up with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he warned Russia could “destroy” his country if he did not agree to end the war.Simon McDonald, who was head of the UK government’s diplomatic service between 2015 and 2020 and is now a life peer, told LBC: “It’s deja vu all over again. I think, yes, [Trump] has been played by President Putin. But as this happens again, I hope that he’s seeing that so when it happens another time, his reaction will be more subtle than it has been the last three times.“What seems to happen is that Ukraine has a good few days, Putin spots that, doesn’t particularly like that, and reacts. “So last week all the talk was about the supply of Tomahawk missiles. The ones under discussion could have hit Moscow and St. Petersburg. Putin really didn’t want that, so he got on the phone to President Trump and worked the magic he’s worked several times before.”‘Putin has worked his magic on Trump again.’Former diplomat @SimonMcDonaldUK thinks the US President has been ‘played’ by Russia on Ukraine talks. pic.twitter.com/cnnCSFiq9X— LBC (@LBC) October 21, 2025Asked about why his planned summit with Putin had been cancelled, Trump told reporters: “I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”Related...Keir Starmer Condemns 'Tyrant' Putin In Wake Of Trump's Latest Zelenskyy Bust-UpTrump Says Putin Should Be Allowed To Keep The Land He Has Seized In UkraineTrump To Hold Putin Summit In Budapest – Where Russia Promised Not To Invade Ukraine

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