Arrangements for Putin-Trump Summit Postponed Shortly After Budapest Negotiations Proposed
Currently exist "no arrangements" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has declared.
This past week the US president stated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to examine the war in Ukraine.
A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a meeting was not "necessary".
The White House did not share additional specifics on why the talks had been put on hold.
Earlier Events
Trump had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit during a call with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Some reports claimed his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with sources suggesting Trump had pressured him to relinquish significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on Monday Trump endorsed a truce plan backed by Kyiv and European leaders to pause the war on the current front line.
"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.
Russia has consistently objected against halting the existing front lines.
The Russian government was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov stated on this week, implying that halting hostilities would simply constitute a temporary ceasefire.
Political Perspectives
The "root causes" of the conflict needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat said, using Moscow's terminology for a series of comprehensive conditions that involve the acceptance of complete Moscow control over the eastern region as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.
Zelensky commented discussions about the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to evade negotiations.
He also said the only topic that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the provision of extended-range arms to Ukraine.
Weapons Discussions
Putin's spontaneous discussion with Trump last Thursday came ahead of reports that the US was planning to provide extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit Russian territory.
Zelensky asserted it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The talk about the missiles had emerged as a "strong investment" in international relations", he remarked.