Trump-Putin talks 'waste of time' as Russia rejects ceasefire, strikes Ukraine

President Donald Trump said meeting Russia's Vladimir Putin would be a "waste of time" just before Russia carried out strikes across Ukraine

MOSCOW — Just hours after President Donald Trump said peace talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin were on hold to avoid wasting his own time, the Kremlin launched intense strikes on Ukraine that killed more than a dozen people, including someone at a kindergarten.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks were Russia’s "spit in the face" of peace and showed the need to provide his country with long-range missiles. The Kremlin said Wednesday that neither Putin nor Trump wanted to waste time — but cautioned that any meeting would require further “preparation.”

Trump's latest peace push hit a roadblock during a call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to senior figures on both sides.

Lavrov became "exercised" during the call, a Trump administration official told NBC News. He reiterated Russia's refusal to agree to an immediate ceasefire before talks begin, a key demand of Kyiv and Europe that the United States has backed.

“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting; I don’t want to have a waste of time,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, confirming earlier reports that the summit with Putin slated for the Hungarian capital of Budapest would be shelved. He declined to give details about how the talks broke down, saying he would “see what happens” as events unfolded.