Plans for Putin-Trump Meeting Delayed Days Following Budapest Negotiations Announced
Currently exist "no preparations" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has declared.
Last Thursday Trump indicated he and the Kremlin leader would meet in Budapest soon to address the Ukraine conflict.
A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the administration clarified the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "required".
The White House declined to provide additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.
Previous Developments
The US president had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Some reports claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with those familiar claiming the president had pressured him to give up significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.
Nevertheless, on Monday the American president embraced a peace initiative endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to halt the war on the existing battle lines.
"Let it be cut in its current state," he said.
Moscow has consistently objected against freezing the existing front lines.
The Russian government was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Lavrov said on this week, indicating that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.
Diplomatic Positions
The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities demanded attention, the Russian diplomat stated, using Moscow's terminology for a set of comprehensive conditions that encompass the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its European partners.
Zelensky commented discussions about the current lines were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.
He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Weapons Discussions
The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently occurred before speculation that the US was preparing to send extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target deep into Russia.
The Ukrainian leader stated it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in diplomacy", he remarked.