🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no preparations" for US President President Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has stated.

Recently the US president stated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital soon to examine the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the administration stated the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was no longer "required".

The administration declined to provide additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been put on hold.

Background Context

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

Some reports suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with sources indicating Trump had urged him to cede significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.

However, on Monday the American president supported a peace initiative backed by Kyiv and European leaders to pause the conflict on the present positions.

"Freeze the lines where it stands," he remarked.

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

Moscow was exclusively seeking "permanent resolution", Lavrov said on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would simply constitute a temporary ceasefire.

Negotiating Stances

The "fundamental issues" of the conflict needed to be addressed, Lavrov emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a series of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

Zelensky commented conversations concerning the front line were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He also said the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.

Strategic Factors

Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently occurred before reports that the United States was preparing to send extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could potentially strike Russian territory.

Zelensky said it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the missiles had emerged as a "strong investment" in negotiations", he added.