🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a administration representative has declared.

Last Thursday the US president said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to discuss the ongoing hostilities.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for this week - but the administration said the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "necessary".

The White House declined to provide additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.

Earlier Events

The US president had discussed a Budapest summit via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Some reports indicated his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with sources claiming Trump had urged him to give up significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.

Nevertheless, on Monday the American president embraced a truce plan supported by Kyiv and EU officials to halt the conflict on the existing battle lines.

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

Russia has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the present battle positions.

The Russian government was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister said on this week, suggesting that pausing conflict would merely represent a short-term truce.

Negotiating Stances

The "underlying reasons" of the conflict needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a set of maximalist demands that include the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president commented discussions about the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to prevent dialogue.

He further commented the sole subject that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader last Thursday came ahead of reports that the US was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the missile discussion that had compelled Moscow to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the missiles had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he commented.