🔗 Share this article

There are "no preparations" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russia's Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has stated.

This past week the US president stated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Budapest in the coming fortnight to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the administration stated the two had had a "positive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".

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

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit during a call with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Certain accounts claimed his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with those familiar claiming the president had pushed him to cede significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Moscow.

Yet, on this week Trump supported a peace initiative backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the war on the current front line.

"Let it be cut the way it is," he stated.

Moscow has frequently resisted against freezing the present battle positions.

The Russian government was exclusively seeking "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister said on this week, indicating that pausing conflict would merely represent a brief pause.

Diplomatic Positions

The "root causes" of the conflict demanded attention, Lavrov stated, using Moscow's terminology for a series of comprehensive conditions that encompass the acknowledgment of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its European partners.

Zelensky said discussions about the battle positions were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.

He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the provision of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Strategic Factors

Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader last Thursday came ahead of speculation that the United States was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could possibly hit Russian territory.

Zelensky stated it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the missiles had emerged as a "significant input" in international relations", he remarked.