🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has stated.

This past week Trump indicated he and the Russian president would meet in Hungary's capital within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for this week - but the administration said the two had had a "positive" call and that a face-to-face session was no longer "necessary".

The administration declined to provide any more details on why the talks had been postponed.

Earlier Events

The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting during a call with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Various sources indicated his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with those familiar claiming the president had pressured him to relinquish significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on Monday the American president endorsed a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Ukraine and EU officials to halt the conflict on the current front line.

"Let it be cut the way it is," he said.

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

The Russian government was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov said on Tuesday, indicating that pausing conflict would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.

Diplomatic Positions

The "root causes" of the war demanded attention, the Russian diplomat said, using Moscow's terminology for a range of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament 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 "doing everything" to avoid diplomacy.

He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with the US leader last Thursday occurred before rumors that the US was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could potentially strike inside Russia.

Zelensky stated it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The talk about the missiles had turned out to be a "strong investment" in international relations", he commented.