Arrangements for Trump-Putin Summit Postponed Days After Budapest Negotiations Proposed
There are "no arrangements" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has stated.
Recently the US president indicated he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the ongoing hostilities.
A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the administration stated the two had had a "constructive" call and that a meeting was no longer "required".
The administration withheld additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been put on hold.
Earlier Events
Trump had discussed a Budapest summit over the phone with Putin, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Certain accounts suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with sources claiming the president had pushed him to give up significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Russia.
Yet, on this week Trump endorsed a truce plan supported by Kyiv and EU officials to freeze the hostilities on the current front line.
"Let it be cut in its current state," he said.
Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.
The Russian government was solely focused on "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.
Political Perspectives
The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities demanded attention, the Russian diplomat stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the demilitarisation of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its European partners.
Zelensky commented conversations concerning the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.
He also said the sole subject that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the provision of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.
Military Considerations
Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday came ahead of reports that the US was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could theoretically target deep into Russia.
Zelensky asserted it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The talk about the weapons systems had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he commented.