Preparations for Putin-Trump Summit Delayed Shortly Following Budapest Talks Announced
Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President President Trump to meet Russia's Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has declared.
This past week Trump said he and the Kremlin leader would conduct negotiations in Budapest soon to examine the war in Ukraine.
A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the administration clarified the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "required".
The administration withheld additional specifics on why the talks had been postponed.
Earlier Events
Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Certain accounts claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar claiming the president had pressured him to cede large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Moscow.
Yet, on Monday Trump endorsed a peace initiative supported by Ukraine and European leaders to halt the hostilities on the present positions.
"Let it be cut the way it is," he stated.
Russia has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the present battle positions.
Moscow was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on Tuesday, indicating that halting hostilities would only amount to a brief pause.
Political Perspectives
The "underlying reasons" of the conflict required resolution, Lavrov said, using Russian diplomatic language for a series of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.
Zelensky stated talks regarding the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.
He also said the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Strategic Factors
The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump last Thursday occurred before speculation that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit Russian territory.
The Ukrainian leader stated it was the missile discussion that had compelled Moscow to participate in talks. The talk about the missiles had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he commented.