Plans for Trump-Putin Talks Delayed Days After Hungarian Capital Talks Suggested
Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has announced.
This past week the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Budapest in the coming fortnight to address the war in Ukraine.
A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for recently - but the administration said the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was no longer "necessary".
The administration did not share additional specifics on why the talks had been postponed.
Background Context
Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting during a call with Putin, a day before hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Certain accounts indicated his talks with Zelensky had been a "contentious discussion", with sources suggesting Trump had pushed him to give up significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Russia.
However, on Monday Trump supported a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and European leaders to halt the conflict on the existing battle lines.
"Leave it as is where it stands," he said.
Russia has consistently objected against freezing the current line of contact.
Moscow was solely focused on "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would simply constitute a brief pause.
Diplomatic Positions
The "root causes" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat said, using Moscow's terminology for a set of comprehensive conditions that encompass the recognition of total Russian authority over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its Western allies.
The Ukrainian president said discussions about the battle positions were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.
He also said the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.
Weapons Discussions
The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently came ahead of speculation that the United States was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in negotiations", he remarked.