🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no preparations" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has announced.

Recently Trump said he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Hungary's capital soon to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei 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 "needed".

The White House withheld any more details on why the talks had been postponed.

Background Context

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting during a call with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Some reports claimed his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with insiders indicating Trump had pushed him to cede extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Moscow.

Yet, on Monday the American president endorsed a truce plan supported by Kyiv and EU officials to pause the hostilities on the current front line.

"Leave it as is the way it is," he said.

Russia has repeatedly pushed back against halting the current line of contact.

The Russian government was exclusively seeking "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister stated on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.

Diplomatic Positions

The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, Lavrov emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president said conversations concerning the battle positions were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to evade negotiations.

He also said the sole subject that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the provision of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday came ahead of speculation that the US was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could possibly hit Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to participate in talks. The talk about the weapons systems had proven to be a "significant input" in diplomacy", he remarked.