Plans for Trump-Putin Talks Postponed Shortly After Budapest Negotiations Proposed
Currently exist "no preparations" for US President President Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has stated.
Recently Trump said he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the ongoing hostilities.
A planning session between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a meeting was no longer "needed".
The White House withheld further information on why the talks had been delayed.
Background Context
Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting during a call with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the White House.
Certain accounts claimed his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with insiders claiming Trump had urged him to cede large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Russia.
Yet, on this week the American president embraced a peace initiative supported by Kyiv and EU officials to freeze the conflict on the existing battle lines.
"Leave it as is in its current state," he remarked.
Russia has frequently resisted against pausing the existing front lines.
The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Lavrov commented on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would simply constitute a brief pause.
Political Perspectives
The "root causes" of the hostilities required resolution, Lavrov stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that include the recognition of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its Western allies.
Zelensky said discussions about the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to prevent dialogue.
He also said the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the supply of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.
Weapons Discussions
The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently occurred before speculation that the United States was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike Russian territory.
Zelensky asserted it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The talk about the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he remarked.