🔗 Share this article

There are "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has announced.

This past week Trump indicated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital within two weeks to address the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for this week - but the administration said the two had had a "constructive" conversation and that a meeting was no longer "necessary".

The administration withheld any more details on why the talks had been put on hold.

Previous Developments

Trump had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts claimed his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with those familiar claiming Trump had pushed him to relinquish large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.

Yet, on Monday the American president endorsed a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Ukraine and EU officials to freeze the hostilities on the existing battle lines.

"Leave it as is in its current state," he remarked.

Russia has repeatedly pushed back against halting the current line of contact.

Moscow was only interested in "permanent resolution", Lavrov said on this week, indicating that pausing conflict would only amount to a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "root causes" of the conflict required resolution, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a series of comprehensive conditions that include the recognition of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its Western allies.

Zelensky stated discussions about the current lines were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to evade negotiations.

He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "pay attention" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday came ahead of rumors that the US was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike deep into Russia.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he added.