Plans for Putin-Trump Summit Postponed Days Following Hungarian Capital Talks Announced
Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President President Trump to meet Russia's Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has stated.
Last Thursday Trump said he and the Kremlin leader would conduct negotiations in Hungary's capital within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.
A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House clarified the two had had a "positive" call and that a meeting was no longer "required".
The White House did not share additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been put on hold.
Earlier Events
The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Various sources suggested his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with those familiar claiming Trump had pushed him to relinquish significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Russia.
Nevertheless, on this week Trump embraced a peace initiative supported by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the hostilities on the existing battle lines.
"Leave it as is where it stands," he said.
Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.
Moscow was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.
Political Perspectives
The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities required resolution, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of comprehensive conditions that include the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a non-starter for Ukraine and its EU supporters.
The Ukrainian president stated conversations concerning the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.
He also said the only topic that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the supply of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.
Military Considerations
Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader recently preceded speculation that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could theoretically target Russian territory.
Zelensky asserted it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The talk about the missiles had turned out to be a "significant input" in diplomacy", he added.