Plans for Trump-Putin Talks Shelved Days After Budapest Talks Proposed

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

This past week the US president stated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "required".

The White House declined to provide additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been put on hold.

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit via telephone with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Some reports indicated his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with those familiar indicating Trump had pressured him to cede significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on Monday Trump supported a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and EU officials to freeze the conflict on the current front line.

"Let it be cut the way it is," he remarked.

Moscow has frequently resisted against freezing the existing front lines.

The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Lavrov commented on this week, implying that freezing the front line would merely represent a brief pause.

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of comprehensive conditions that include the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its Western allies.

Zelensky commented discussions about the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He further commented the only topic that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the delivery of extended-range arms to Ukraine.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's unplanned conversation with Trump recently occurred before rumors that the United States was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could possibly hit deep into Russia.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had proven to be a "significant input" in diplomacy", he remarked.