🔗 Share this article

Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President President Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a White House official has declared.

Recently Trump said he and the Russian president would meet in Hungary's capital soon to address the Ukraine conflict.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House clarified the two had had a "positive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "required".

The administration declined to provide any more details on the reason the negotiations had been put on hold.

Background Context

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a day before hosting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with insiders claiming the president had pressured him to give up large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on this week the American president endorsed a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Ukraine and EU officials to freeze the war on the current front line.

"Leave it as is where it stands," he said.

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.

Moscow was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Lavrov commented on this week, indicating that freezing the front line would simply constitute a short-term truce.

Negotiating Stances

The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities demanded attention, Lavrov emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president stated conversations concerning the front line were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the provision of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with Trump recently preceded speculation that the US was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target inside Russia.

Zelensky said it was the weapons consideration that had compelled Moscow to participate in talks. The talk about the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in international relations", he remarked.