🔗 Share this article

There are "no preparations" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a White House official has stated.

Recently Trump 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 this week - but the administration said the two had had a "productive" call and that a meeting was no longer "needed".

The administration did not share any more details on why the talks had been put on hold.

Previous Developments

Trump had discussed a Budapest summit via telephone with the Russian leader, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with insiders indicating the president had pressured him to cede significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.

Nevertheless, on Monday the American president supported a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the hostilities on the current front line.

"Freeze the lines the way it is," he said.

Russia has consistently objected against halting the current line of contact.

The Russian government was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Lavrov said on Tuesday, indicating that halting hostilities would only amount to a short-term truce.

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the war required resolution, Lavrov stated, using Moscow's terminology for a range of comprehensive conditions that involve the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president said talks regarding the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to prevent dialogue.

He also said the only topic that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the supply of extended-range arms to Ukraine.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently came ahead of speculation that the United States was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target deep into Russia.

Zelensky asserted it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to participate in talks. The discussion regarding the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he commented.