Plans for Putin-Trump Summit Delayed Shortly Following Budapest Negotiations Proposed
Currently exist "no preparations" for US President President Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has announced.
This past week Trump said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Hungary's capital within two weeks to examine the ongoing hostilities.
A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".
The White House did not share additional specifics on why the talks had been put on hold.
Background Context
The US president had discussed a Hungarian meeting during a call with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Certain accounts suggested his talks with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with sources suggesting the president had pushed him to relinquish extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.
However, on this week the American president endorsed a truce plan supported by Kyiv and EU officials to freeze the war on the current front line.
"Leave it as is the way it is," he said.
Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the current line of contact.
Moscow was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday, suggesting that pausing conflict would simply constitute a short-term truce.
Negotiating Stances
The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities required resolution, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that involve the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.
The Ukrainian president stated discussions about the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to avoid diplomacy.
He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Strategic Factors
Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently came ahead of speculation that the United States was preparing to send distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target deep into Russia.
Zelensky asserted it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had turned out to be a "strong investment" in diplomacy", he remarked.