Preparations for Trump-Putin Talks Delayed Days Following Hungarian Capital Talks Suggested
Currently exist "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russia's Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has announced.
Last Thursday the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to discuss the ongoing hostilities.
A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House stated the two had had a "productive" call and that a meeting was not "required".
The White House withheld any more details on why the talks had been postponed.
Earlier Events
Trump had discussed a Budapest summit during a call with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Some reports indicated his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with insiders claiming Trump had urged him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Russia.
Nevertheless, on Monday the American president endorsed a truce plan supported by Ukraine and European leaders to pause the hostilities on the current front line.
"Leave it as is where it stands," he said.
Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against halting the existing front lines.
The Russian government was exclusively seeking "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov stated on this week, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a short-term truce.
Political Perspectives
The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities demanded attention, Lavrov emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of extensive requirements that involve the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of the country – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its European partners.
Zelensky commented talks regarding the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.
He additionally stated the only topic that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Military Considerations
Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader recently occurred before reports that the United States was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target deep into Russia.
The Ukrainian leader stated it was the weapons consideration that had compelled Moscow to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in negotiations", he added.