🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no arrangements" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has stated.

This past week the US president stated he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest in the coming fortnight to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a meeting was not "required".

The administration withheld additional specifics on why the talks had been delayed.

Previous Developments

Trump had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the White House.

Certain accounts indicated his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with insiders indicating the president had pushed him to relinquish extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.

Nevertheless, on Monday the American president endorsed a truce plan backed by Kyiv and European leaders to halt the conflict on the current front line.

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

Russia has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the existing front lines.

The Russian government was exclusively seeking "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, indicating that freezing the front line would only amount to a short-term truce.

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the conflict demanded attention, Lavrov stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that involve the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of the country – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its Western allies.

Zelensky commented talks regarding the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to avoid diplomacy.

He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday occurred before speculation that the United States was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike inside Russia.

Zelensky stated it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The talk about the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he commented.