🔗 Share this article

There are "no preparations" for US President President Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has stated.

Recently the US president stated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital soon to address the war in Ukraine.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House stated the two had had a "constructive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".

The administration did not share additional specifics on why the talks had been delayed.

Previous Developments

Trump had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit during a call with Putin, a day before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Some reports suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar indicating the president had pressured him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on this week Trump embraced a peace initiative endorsed by Ukraine and EU officials to pause the hostilities on the current front line.

"Leave it as is in its current state," he said.

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the current line of contact.

Moscow was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov stated on this week, indicating that halting hostilities would merely represent a short-term truce.

Diplomatic Positions

The "underlying reasons" of the conflict required resolution, Lavrov stated, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its Western allies.

Zelensky commented discussions about the current lines were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He further commented the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the provision of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

Putin's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently occurred before reports that the US was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike inside Russia.

Zelensky said it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The talk about the weapons systems had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he added.