Preparations for Trump-Putin Meeting Shelved Days After Hungarian Capital Negotiations Suggested
Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has declared.
Last Thursday Trump indicated he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to address the ongoing hostilities.
A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the administration clarified the two had had a "positive" conversation and that a meeting was not "necessary".
The administration declined to provide any more details on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.
Previous Developments
The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit during a call with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Various sources claimed his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar indicating the president had pressured him to relinquish significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Russia.
However, on this week the American president embraced a ceasefire proposal supported by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the existing battle lines.
"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.
Moscow has frequently resisted 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 simply constitute a temporary ceasefire.
Diplomatic Positions
The "underlying reasons" of the war required resolution, the Russian diplomat said, using Russian diplomatic language for a series of comprehensive conditions that encompass the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.
Zelensky said conversations concerning the battle positions were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.
He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.
Military Considerations
Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader recently preceded rumors that the US was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target Russian territory.
Zelensky asserted it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The talk about the missiles had emerged as a "significant input" in negotiations", he commented.