🔗 Share this article

There are "no arrangements" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a administration representative has announced.

This past week the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would meet in Hungary's capital soon to address the war in Ukraine.

A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the administration said the two had had a "productive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "required".

The administration withheld any more details on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Earlier Events

The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting over the phone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts claimed his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with those familiar suggesting Trump had urged him to give up extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Moscow.

Yet, on Monday the American president supported a peace initiative endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the current front line.

"Leave it as is the way it is," he stated.

Russia has frequently resisted against freezing the present battle positions.

Moscow was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, indicating that halting hostilities would simply constitute a brief pause.

Diplomatic Positions

The "root causes" of the war demanded attention, the Russian diplomat said, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that involve the recognition of total Russian authority over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its Western allies.

Zelensky stated conversations concerning the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to evade negotiations.

He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

The Russian president's unscheduled call with the US leader recently preceded rumors that the US was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike deep into Russia.

Zelensky stated it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in international relations", he commented.