Preparations for Putin-Trump Talks Delayed Shortly Following Hungarian Capital Negotiations Proposed
Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President President Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has declared.
Last Thursday Trump stated he and the Kremlin leader would conduct negotiations in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.
A planning session between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a meeting was no longer "required".
The White House did not share any more details on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.
Earlier Events
Trump had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit during a call with Putin, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Various sources claimed his meeting with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with insiders indicating Trump had pushed him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on this week the American president endorsed a peace initiative backed by Ukraine and EU officials to pause the war on the current front line.
"Leave it as is where it stands," he remarked.
Moscow has frequently resisted against halting the current line of contact.
Moscow was only interested in "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister commented on this week, suggesting that pausing conflict would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.
Diplomatic Positions
The "root causes" of the conflict required resolution, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a set of comprehensive conditions that involve the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its European partners.
The Ukrainian president stated discussions about the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to avoid diplomacy.
He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Strategic Factors
Putin's unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday occurred before speculation that the US was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could potentially strike Russian territory.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in negotiations", he remarked.