Arrangements for Putin-Trump Talks Postponed Days Following Hungarian Capital Negotiations Suggested
There are "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has stated.
Last Thursday Trump indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest soon to examine the war in Ukraine.
A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the White House said the two had had a "positive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "required".
The administration withheld any more details on why the talks had been postponed.
Previous Developments
Trump had discussed a Budapest summit over the phone with Putin, a day before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Certain accounts suggested his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with sources suggesting the president had pressured him to relinquish significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Moscow.
Yet, on this week Trump embraced a peace initiative backed by Ukraine and European leaders to pause the war on the current front line.
"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.
Russia has frequently resisted against pausing the current line of contact.
Moscow was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, suggesting that pausing conflict would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.
Diplomatic Positions
The "underlying reasons" of the war needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a series of comprehensive conditions that involve the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a non-starter for Kyiv and its European partners.
Zelensky said discussions about the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy.
He additionally stated the sole subject that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the supply of extended-range arms to Ukraine.
Weapons Discussions
Putin's unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday occurred before reports that the United States was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could potentially strike inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The talk about the weapons systems had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he remarked.