Arrangements for Trump-Putin Meeting Shelved Days After Budapest Negotiations Suggested
There are "no arrangements" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has stated.
Last Thursday the US president stated he and the Russian president would meet in Hungary's capital within two weeks to discuss the Ukraine conflict.
A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the administration said the two had had a "constructive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was no longer "necessary".
The White House withheld additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.
Earlier Events
The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit during a call with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Various sources indicated his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with sources claiming the president had urged him to relinquish significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on this week Trump supported a truce plan endorsed by Ukraine and EU officials to halt the conflict on the current front line.
"Leave it as is the way it is," he said.
Russia has consistently objected against pausing the present battle positions.
Moscow was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Lavrov commented on this week, suggesting that pausing conflict would simply constitute a short-term truce.
Diplomatic Positions
The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities demanded attention, Lavrov stated, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that involve the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.
Zelensky commented conversations concerning the front line were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" 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 Ukraine.
Strategic Factors
The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently preceded speculation that the US was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.
Zelensky said it was the missile discussion that had compelled Moscow to enter into dialogue. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had turned out to be a "strong investment" in negotiations", he remarked.