Arrangements for Trump-Putin Meeting Delayed Days After Hungarian Capital Negotiations Suggested

Currently exist "no plans" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has declared.

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

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the administration said the two had had a "constructive" conversation and that a meeting was not "required".

The White House did not share further information on why the talks had been delayed.

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting over the phone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with sources indicating Trump had pushed him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Moscow.

However, on this week the American president supported a peace initiative backed by Ukraine and European leaders to freeze the hostilities on the existing battle lines.

"Let it be cut in its current state," he stated.

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the existing front lines.

The Russian government was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister commented on this week, indicating that halting hostilities would merely represent a brief pause.

Political Perspectives

The "root causes" of the conflict demanded attention, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that encompass the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president stated talks regarding the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy.

He also said the sole subject that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Strategic Factors

Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently came ahead of reports that the United States was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he commented.