🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no preparations" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has announced.

This past week the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to examine the ongoing hostilities.

A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "positive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "necessary".

The White House withheld any more details on why the talks had been postponed.

Earlier Events

The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit over the phone with Putin, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Some reports suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "contentious discussion", with sources suggesting Trump had urged him to give up large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.

Nevertheless, on Monday Trump supported a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the existing battle lines.

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

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the current line of contact.

The Russian government was solely focused on "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on this week, indicating that halting hostilities would merely represent a short-term truce.

Negotiating Stances

The "fundamental issues" of the conflict demanded attention, the Russian diplomat said, using Russian diplomatic language for a series of comprehensive conditions that involve the acceptance of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its Western allies.

Zelensky commented discussions about the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to prevent dialogue.

He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently occurred before speculation that the United States was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in international relations", he commented.