Preparations for Putin-Trump Summit Shelved Shortly Following Hungarian Capital Talks Announced
There are "no arrangements" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russian President Putin "in the near term", a White House official has announced.
This past week Trump stated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital within two weeks to examine the war in Ukraine.
A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House said the two had had a "positive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".
The White House withheld additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.
Previous Developments
Trump had discussed a Budapest summit during a call with the Russian leader, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Certain accounts suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with sources indicating Trump had pressured him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on this week the American president supported a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the current front line.
"Leave it as is in its current state," he stated.
Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.
The Russian government was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, suggesting that pausing conflict would only amount to a brief pause.
Diplomatic Positions
The "root causes" of the conflict required resolution, the Russian diplomat said, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of comprehensive conditions that include the recognition of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its European partners.
The Ukrainian president said conversations concerning the battle positions were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to prevent dialogue.
He further commented the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the provision of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.
Weapons Discussions
Putin's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently preceded reports that the US was planning to provide extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the weapons consideration that had compelled Moscow to engage in discussion. The talk about the missiles had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he added.