Plans for Putin-Trump Talks Shelved Shortly After Hungarian Capital Talks Announced
Currently exist "no preparations" for US President President Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a White House official has declared.
This past week Trump indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the ongoing hostilities.
A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was planned for this week - but the administration clarified the two had had a "constructive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "required".
The administration did not share any more details on why the talks had been put on hold.
Background Context
Trump had discussed a Budapest summit over the phone with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Certain accounts indicated his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with those familiar suggesting the president had urged him to cede extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on this week the American president endorsed a truce plan endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to pause the war on the present positions.
"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.
Moscow has frequently resisted against freezing the current line of contact.
The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Lavrov commented on this week, indicating that halting hostilities would merely represent a brief pause.
Diplomatic Positions
The "root causes" of the hostilities demanded attention, Lavrov emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its European partners.
The Ukrainian president said conversations concerning the front line were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy.
He further commented the sole subject that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the supply of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Weapons Discussions
Putin's unscheduled call with Trump recently occurred before reports that the US was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target deep into Russia.
The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The talk about the weapons systems had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he added.