Preparations for Trump-Putin Summit Postponed Shortly Following Budapest Negotiations Proposed
Currently exist "no plans" for American leader President Trump to meet Russia's Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has declared.
Last Thursday the US president indicated he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest in the coming fortnight to address the ongoing hostilities.
A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House said the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "necessary".
The administration declined to provide further information on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.
Earlier Events
Trump had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit over the phone with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Various sources suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with sources indicating the president had pushed him to cede extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.
However, on this week the American president supported a truce plan endorsed by Kyiv and EU officials to freeze the conflict on the current front line.
"Let it be cut the way it is," he said.
Moscow has frequently resisted against freezing the current line of contact.
Moscow was only interested in "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on this week, indicating that halting hostilities would simply constitute a short-term truce.
Diplomatic Positions
The "root causes" of the war required resolution, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a series of maximalist demands that encompass 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 EU supporters.
The Ukrainian president said talks regarding the current lines were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.
He also said the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.
Weapons Discussions
The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently occurred before speculation that the United States was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit deep into Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The discussion regarding the missiles had turned out to be a "significant input" in diplomacy", he commented.