Plans for Putin-Trump Summit Postponed Days After Hungarian Capital Talks Announced
Currently exist "no plans" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has announced.
Recently the US president indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to address the war in Ukraine.
A planning session between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "positive" conversation and that a meeting was no longer "needed".
The White House withheld additional specifics on why the talks had been put on hold.
Earlier Events
Trump had discussed a Budapest summit over the phone with Putin, a day before hosting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Various sources indicated his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with insiders claiming Trump had urged him to relinquish extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.
However, on Monday the American president supported a truce plan backed by Ukraine and EU officials to halt the war on the existing battle lines.
"Leave it as is in its current state," he stated.
Russia has consistently objected against pausing the existing front lines.
The Russian government was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov said on this week, implying that freezing the front line would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.
Political Perspectives
The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities required resolution, the Russian diplomat said, using Kremlin shorthand for a set of maximalist demands that include the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.
The Ukrainian president stated talks regarding the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.
He further commented the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the provision of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.
Strategic Factors
The Russian president's unplanned conversation with the US leader recently preceded speculation that the United States was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he remarked.