🔗 Share this article

There are "no arrangements" for US President President Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has declared.

Recently Trump said he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to discuss the ongoing hostilities.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the administration clarified the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a meeting was no longer "necessary".

The administration withheld further information on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Background Context

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Various sources suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "contentious discussion", with sources indicating the president had pushed him to give up large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.

Nevertheless, on this week Trump embraced a truce plan backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the hostilities on the present positions.

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

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

The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday, suggesting that pausing conflict would simply constitute a short-term truce.

Diplomatic Positions

The "root causes" of the hostilities demanded attention, the Russian diplomat stated, using Russian diplomatic language for a range of comprehensive conditions that involve the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a non-starter for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

Zelensky said discussions about the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to avoid diplomacy.

He further commented the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's unscheduled call with the US leader recently preceded rumors that the US was preparing to send distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could possibly hit Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the missile discussion that had compelled Moscow to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had turned out to be a "significant input" in diplomacy", he added.