🔗 Share this article

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

Last Thursday Trump said he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Budapest soon to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A planning session between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the White House stated the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a meeting was no longer "required".

The White House declined to provide any more details on why the talks had been postponed.

Background Context

The US president had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts indicated his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with sources claiming the president had urged him to cede extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Moscow.

However, on Monday the American president supported a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and European leaders to pause the war on the current front line.

"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.

Moscow has frequently resisted against pausing the current line of contact.

Moscow was only interested in "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister stated on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.

Diplomatic Positions

The "underlying reasons" of the war required resolution, Lavrov said, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of Ukraine – a non-starter for Kyiv and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president stated conversations concerning the battle positions were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He further commented the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Strategic Factors

Putin's unscheduled call with the US leader recently preceded reports that the United States was planning to provide extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit Russian territory.

Zelensky asserted it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The talk about the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he added.