Preparations for Trump-Putin Summit Shelved Days After Hungarian Capital Talks Proposed

There are "no arrangements" for American leader President Trump to meet Russian President Putin "anytime soon", a administration representative has declared.

Last Thursday Trump stated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Hungary's capital within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for this week - but the administration stated the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was no longer "necessary".

The White House did not share further information on why the talks had been delayed.

Previous Developments

The US president had discussed a Budapest summit during a call with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts suggested his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar claiming the president had pushed him to relinquish extensive regions of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Russia.

However, on this week Trump supported a truce plan backed by Ukraine and European leaders to freeze the war on the existing battle lines.

"Let it be cut where it stands," he remarked.

Moscow has frequently resisted against halting the current line of contact.

The Russian government was only interested in "enduring stability", Lavrov commented on this week, implying that freezing the front line would simply constitute a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "root causes" of the hostilities demanded attention, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that include the acceptance of complete Moscow control over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president said talks regarding the battle positions were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.

He further commented the only topic that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the provision of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's unscheduled call with Trump recently preceded speculation that the United States was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the Tomahawks issue that had compelled Moscow to engage in discussion. The conversation concerning the missiles had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he remarked.