Trump-Putin summit postponed amidst icy peace talks in Ukraine. Meanwhile, bombings hit an orphanage in Sumy.

The face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is drawing to a close. which was due to be held in Budapest within two weeks. Also The meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been suspended. After the optimistic statements that followed their last phone call, Diplomacy is at a standstill again: the peace summit in Ukraine has been postponed to a date to be determined.

According to diplomatic sources, the negotiations would be faltering due to: substantial differences on the definition of the ceasefire and on post-war conditions. The Kremlin continues to ask for the transfer of Donbass, point that Washington and Kiev firmly reject it.

The postponement was revealed by CNN, followed by Axios, which quoted a White House official: “A meeting between President Trump and President Putin is not planned in the immediate future. Rubio and Lavrov had a productive phone call, therefore a further meeting is not necessary”.

The Kremlin partially confirmed this, though it corrected its tone. "A specific date has never been set," explained spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who also added: “a meeting of this level requires preparation and time”. Words followed by the more controversial ones of Sergei Lavrov: "It's impossible to suspend something that hasn't yet been agreed upon. Western media spreads false and unfounded news to create confusion.", the Russian minister declared.

In the meantime, Trump publicly dampened expectations. “I don't want a useless meeting, I don't want to waste time”, he said from the White House, reiterating however that still see a chance for a ceasefire“Putin knows that the war would not have started if I had been president,” declared the tycoon, who then continued: “Now Ukraine and Russia are killing each other. I hope it ends soon.", he added.

Moscow, for its part, still rules out a truce. “Russia will not accept a ceasefire until the root causes of the conflict are resolved.”, Lavrov said, accusing the West of wanting to give Kiev time to rearm.

While Washington and Moscow exchange accusations and caution, the European Union is working with Kiev on a 12-point proposal to freeze the front and launch a peace process monitored by a "Trump commission." The plan, anticipated by the Financial Times and the Bloomberg, would exclude territorial concessions and would foresee the return of deported Ukrainian children, prisoner exchange, and security guarantees for Kiev.

Also on the table is the Post-war reconstruction: European and American funds would be gradually released, while Russia's $300 billion in frozen reserves would be returned to Moscow only in exchange for a financial contribution to reconstruction.

For now, however, diplomacy remains at a standstill. And the Budapest summit, which should have marked the first real step towards ending the war, risks turning into a new international stalemate.

Bombing continues on the Ukrainian front: an orphanage in Sumy was hit. 

As diplomacy stalls, Ukraine is once again under attack. The authorities of Sumy, capital of north-eastern Ukraine on the border with Russia, they made it known that it is the number of injured has risen to 13 in the Russian missile attack that hit a child rehabilitation center and an orphanage yesterdayAmong the injured there are also four childrenA raid which, according to Kiev, It would demonstrate the fragility of the ceasefire called for by some European leaders and the need for more effective air defenses.