🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no plans" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has declared.

Last Thursday the US president stated he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Budapest in the coming fortnight to address the ongoing hostilities.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the administration stated the two had had a "positive" call and that a face-to-face session was no longer "needed".

The administration withheld any more details on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.

Background Context

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting during a call with Putin, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Certain accounts suggested his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with sources claiming the president had pressured him to cede extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Russia.

Yet, on Monday the American president embraced a ceasefire proposal supported by Kyiv and EU officials to halt the war on the current front line.

"Let it be cut where it stands," he said.

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

Moscow was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would simply constitute a short-term truce.

Diplomatic Positions

The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities demanded attention, Lavrov emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a range of comprehensive conditions that involve the acceptance of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of the country – a non-starter for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president stated conversations concerning the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's unscheduled call with Trump recently occurred before reports that the US was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target inside Russia.

Zelensky said it was the Tomahawks issue that had compelled Moscow to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the missiles had turned out to be a "strong investment" in diplomacy", he remarked.