Preparations for Putin-Trump Summit Postponed Shortly Following Budapest Talks Suggested
There are "no preparations" for American leader President Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has declared.
Last Thursday Trump said he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest soon to address the Ukraine conflict.
A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the administration said the two had had a "positive" call and that a meeting was not "necessary".
The White House did not share additional specifics on why the talks had been postponed.
Previous Developments
Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Various sources suggested his talks with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with insiders indicating Trump had pressured him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Moscow.
However, on this week the American president embraced a peace initiative endorsed by Kyiv and EU officials to pause the conflict on the present positions.
"Leave it as is in its current state," he remarked.
Russia has consistently objected against freezing the present battle positions.
The Russian government was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister said on this week, suggesting that freezing the front line would merely represent a brief pause.
Political Perspectives
The "root causes" of the conflict required resolution, the Russian diplomat stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a set of maximalist demands that involve the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of the country – a non-starter for Kyiv and its Western allies.
The Ukrainian president commented talks regarding the current lines were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy.
He additionally stated the sole subject that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Weapons Discussions
Putin's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently came ahead of rumors that the US was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could possibly hit inside Russia.
Zelensky asserted it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had proven to be a "significant input" in diplomacy", he added.