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Currently exist "no plans" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "anytime soon", a administration representative has stated.

This past week the US president indicated he and the Kremlin leader would conduct negotiations in Budapest within two weeks to examine the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was no longer "needed".

The White House did not share any more details on why the talks had been postponed.

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit via telephone with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Various sources claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with sources suggesting the president had pressured him to give up significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Russia.

However, on Monday the American president supported a truce plan backed by Kyiv and EU officials to halt the conflict on the present positions.

"Freeze the lines in its current state," he said.

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

Moscow was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday, implying that halting hostilities would simply constitute a brief pause.

Diplomatic Positions

The "fundamental issues" of the war needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a set of maximalist demands that include the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its Western allies.

Zelensky commented talks regarding the current lines were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the provision of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

Putin's unscheduled call with the US leader recently came ahead of speculation that the US was preparing to send distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target inside Russia.

Zelensky asserted it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the missiles had turned out to be a "significant input" in negotiations", he added.