Plans for Putin-Trump Meeting Delayed Days Following Budapest Talks Proposed

There are "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russia's Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has declared.

Last Thursday Trump stated he and the Kremlin leader would meet in Hungary's capital soon to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the White House said the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".

The administration withheld further information on why the talks had been delayed.

Earlier Events

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting over the phone with the Russian leader, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Some reports indicated his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar claiming Trump had urged him to relinquish significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Moscow.

However, on this week the American president supported a peace initiative endorsed by Ukraine and EU officials to pause the war on the existing battle lines.

"Leave it as is where it stands," he stated.

Russia has consistently objected against freezing the existing front lines.

Moscow was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister stated on Tuesday, indicating that pausing conflict would merely represent a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities required resolution, Lavrov emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its European partners.

The Ukrainian president said conversations concerning the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "doing everything" to prevent dialogue.

He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's unscheduled call with the US leader recently preceded speculation that the US was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to participate in talks. The discussion regarding the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he added.