Plans for Putin-Trump Meeting Delayed Days After Budapest Talks Announced
Currently exist "no preparations" for US President President Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has announced.
This past week the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to discuss the Ukraine conflict.
A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "constructive" call and that a meeting was no longer "needed".
The White House withheld additional specifics on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.
Background Context
Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting over the phone with Putin, a day before hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Certain accounts claimed his meeting with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with sources claiming the president had pressured him to relinquish large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Russia.
Nevertheless, on Monday the American president embraced a peace initiative endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to halt the war on the current front line.
"Leave it as is in its current state," he stated.
Russia has consistently objected against halting the current line of contact.
The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Lavrov commented on this week, suggesting that freezing the front line would merely represent a brief pause.
Diplomatic Positions
The "root causes" of the conflict required resolution, the Russian diplomat stated, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the recognition of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of Ukraine – a non-starter for Ukraine and its European partners.
The Ukrainian president said conversations concerning the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to avoid diplomacy.
He further commented the sole subject that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Weapons Discussions
The Russian president's unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday preceded reports that the US was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could potentially strike inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The talk about the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in diplomacy", he commented.