🔗 Share this article

There are "no plans" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has announced.

Recently Trump said he and the Russian president would meet in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A planning session between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the White House stated the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was no longer "needed".

The White House did not share further information on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Earlier Events

The US president had discussed a Hungarian meeting during a call with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Some reports claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with sources claiming the president had pressured him to cede large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.

Yet, on this week the American president embraced a truce plan backed by Ukraine and EU officials to pause the hostilities on the existing battle lines.

"Freeze the lines in its current state," he stated.

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against halting the current line of contact.

Moscow was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister stated on this week, suggesting that pausing conflict would merely represent a short-term truce.

Diplomatic Positions

The "fundamental issues" of the war needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of comprehensive conditions that encompass the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a non-starter for Ukraine and its Western allies.

Zelensky commented discussions about the current lines were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy.

He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine.

Military Considerations

Putin's unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday occurred before rumors that the US was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike Russian territory.

Zelensky stated it was the missile discussion that had compelled Moscow to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the missiles had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he remarked.