Arrangements for Trump-Putin Talks Shelved Shortly Following Hungarian Capital Talks Suggested
There are "no plans" for American leader President Trump to meet Russia's Putin "in the near term", a White House official has stated.
Recently the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital soon to examine the war in Ukraine.
A planning session between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for this week - but the White House stated the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a meeting was not "required".
The White House did not share further information on why the talks had been postponed.
Background Context
The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting during a call with Putin, a day before hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Certain accounts indicated his meeting with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with sources indicating the president had urged him to cede significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on this week Trump embraced a truce plan backed by Kyiv and EU officials to pause the war on the present positions.
"Freeze the lines the way it is," he stated.
Russia has frequently resisted against pausing the existing front lines.
Moscow was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on this week, indicating that pausing conflict would simply constitute a brief pause.
Diplomatic Positions
The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities required resolution, Lavrov emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment 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 conversations concerning the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.
He also said the sole subject that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Weapons Discussions
Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader recently came ahead of reports that the US was preparing to send extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could potentially strike Russian territory.
Zelensky said it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The talk about the weapons systems had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he added.