Arrangements for Putin-Trump Meeting Shelved Shortly Following Budapest Negotiations Announced
Currently exist "no arrangements" for American leader President Trump to meet Russian President Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has declared.
This past week Trump stated he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Budapest within two weeks to examine the war in Ukraine.
A planning session between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the White House stated the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".
The administration withheld additional specifics on why the talks had been delayed.
Previous Developments
The US president had discussed a Hungarian meeting during a call with Putin, a day before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Various sources suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar suggesting Trump had pushed him to give up large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on Monday Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal supported by Ukraine and EU officials to halt the conflict on the current front line.
"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.
Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against halting the current line of contact.
Moscow was solely focused on "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister commented on this week, implying that pausing conflict would simply constitute a short-term truce.
Political Perspectives
The "root causes" of the conflict needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that involve the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.
The Ukrainian president stated conversations concerning the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to prevent dialogue.
He also said the sole subject that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Weapons Discussions
Putin's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently occurred before rumors that the US was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The discussion regarding the missiles had turned out to be a "significant input" in negotiations", he remarked.