🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russia's Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has declared.

This past week the US president stated he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Budapest within two weeks to address the ongoing hostilities.

A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" call and that a meeting was no longer "needed".

The White House did not share additional specifics on why the talks had been delayed.

Previous Developments

Trump had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit via telephone with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Certain accounts suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with insiders claiming the president had pressured him to cede significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Russia.

However, on this week the American president embraced a peace initiative supported by Kyiv and EU officials to halt the conflict on the current front line.

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

Moscow has consistently objected against halting the existing front lines.

The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Lavrov said on Tuesday, indicating that halting hostilities would merely represent a brief pause.

Diplomatic Positions

The "root causes" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat said, using Russian diplomatic language for a series of extensive requirements that involve the acceptance of complete Moscow control over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its European partners.

Zelensky stated discussions about the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to prevent dialogue.

He further commented the only topic that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the delivery of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump recently occurred before speculation that the US was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit deep into Russia.

Zelensky said it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the missiles had proven to be a "strong investment" in diplomacy", he commented.