Plans for Trump-Putin Summit Shelved Days After Hungarian Capital Negotiations Suggested
Currently exist "no preparations" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a White House official has announced.
Recently the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would meet in Budapest in the coming fortnight to discuss the Ukraine conflict.
A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for this week - but the administration said the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a meeting was no longer "necessary".
The White House declined to provide any more details on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.
Earlier Events
The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Certain accounts claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with insiders indicating the president had pushed him to give up large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on this week Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal backed by Ukraine and EU officials to freeze the war on the present positions.
"Leave it as is in its current state," he said.
Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against halting the present battle positions.
Moscow was exclusively seeking "permanent resolution", Lavrov said on Tuesday, implying that halting hostilities would merely represent a brief pause.
Diplomatic Positions
The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat said, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.
Zelensky commented talks regarding the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to prevent dialogue.
He further commented the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "pay attention" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Weapons Discussions
The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump recently came ahead of reports that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the missiles had turned out to be a "significant input" in international relations", he commented.