🔗 Share this article

There are "no arrangements" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has announced.

This past week the US president stated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital soon to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a meeting was no longer "required".

The White House did not share any more details on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.

Previous Developments

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources indicated his meeting with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with insiders indicating Trump had pushed him to cede extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Russia.

However, on this week the American president supported a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Kyiv and EU officials to freeze the conflict on the current front line.

"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.

Russia has consistently objected against freezing the current line of contact.

Moscow was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday, indicating that pausing conflict would only amount to a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, Lavrov emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a series of comprehensive conditions that encompass the acceptance of total Russian authority over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its Western allies.

Zelensky said conversations concerning the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the delivery of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

The Russian president's unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday preceded speculation that the United States was planning to provide extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike inside Russia.

Zelensky asserted it was the Tomahawks issue that had compelled Moscow to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the missiles had emerged as a "strong investment" in negotiations", he added.