Arrangements for Trump-Putin Meeting Delayed Days After Budapest Negotiations Proposed

There are "no preparations" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has stated.

Recently Trump said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest soon to discuss the ongoing hostilities.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House clarified the two had had a "positive" call and that a meeting was no longer "necessary".

The White House declined to provide any more details on why the talks had been postponed.

Previous Developments

The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "contentious discussion", with those familiar claiming the president had pushed him to give up extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on Monday the American president endorsed a ceasefire proposal supported by Ukraine and European leaders to pause the hostilities on the present positions.

"Freeze the lines the way it is," he said.

Moscow has frequently resisted against halting the current line of contact.

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

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the war needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Russian diplomatic language for a series of comprehensive conditions that include the acknowledgment of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

Zelensky stated discussions about the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the sole subject that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently occurred before rumors that the United States was preparing to send distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the missile discussion that had compelled Moscow to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he added.