🔗 Share this article

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

Last Thursday Trump indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest soon to address the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the administration clarified the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was not "required".

The White House did not share additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Previous Developments

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting over the phone with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts indicated his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with those familiar claiming the president had pushed him to give up large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Russia.

Yet, on this week the American president embraced a peace initiative endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to halt the war on the current front line.

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

Moscow has frequently resisted against freezing the present battle positions.

Moscow was only interested in "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, implying that halting hostilities would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.

Negotiating Stances

The "fundamental issues" of the conflict needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Moscow's terminology for a series of extensive requirements that encompass the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its European partners.

The Ukrainian president commented discussions about the front line were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to avoid diplomacy.

He further commented the sole subject that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Military Considerations

Putin's unplanned conversation with Trump last Thursday occurred before speculation that the US was planning to provide extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader said it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The talk about the weapons systems had turned out to be a "strong investment" in diplomacy", he commented.