🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no preparations" for US President President Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "in the near term", a White House official has stated.

This past week the US president indicated he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest in the coming fortnight to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for recently - but the administration stated the two had had a "productive" call and that a meeting was not "necessary".

The administration did not share any more details on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting over the phone with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Certain accounts claimed his talks with Zelensky had been a "contentious discussion", with those familiar suggesting Trump had pressured him to relinquish large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Russia.

Yet, on this week Trump supported a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and EU officials to pause the conflict on the current front line.

"Leave it as is in its current state," he remarked.

Moscow has frequently resisted against freezing the present battle positions.

The Russian government was only interested in "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on Tuesday, indicating that pausing conflict would simply constitute a short-term truce.

Diplomatic Positions

The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of the country – a non-starter for Kyiv and its Western allies.

Zelensky said conversations concerning the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He also said the sole subject that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday preceded rumors that the US was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could potentially strike deep into Russia.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had turned out to be a "significant input" in international relations", he remarked.