Preparations for Putin-Trump Meeting Shelved Shortly After Budapest Talks Announced
Currently exist "no plans" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russia's Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has declared.
This past week the US president stated he and the Kremlin leader would conduct negotiations in Hungary's capital soon to examine the Ukraine conflict.
A preparatory meeting 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 "positive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was not "required".
The White House declined to provide further information on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.
Background Context
The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit over the phone with the Russian leader, a just prior to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Various sources suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with insiders suggesting Trump had pushed him to relinquish significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Russia.
Nevertheless, on Monday the American president endorsed a peace initiative backed by Kyiv and EU officials to halt the conflict on the current front line.
"Leave it as is in its current state," he stated.
Moscow has frequently resisted against pausing the existing front lines.
Moscow was only interested in "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister stated on this week, suggesting that halting hostilities would merely represent a short-term truce.
Diplomatic Positions
The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.
Zelensky stated conversations concerning the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to evade negotiations.
He further commented the only topic that could cause Russia to "take notice" was that of the supply of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Military Considerations
The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump recently preceded speculation that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit deep into Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he commented.