Plans for Trump-Putin Summit Shelved Days After Hungarian Capital Talks Proposed
Currently exist "no plans" for American leader President Trump to meet Russian President Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has announced.
This past week the US president said he and the Russian president would conduct negotiations in Hungary's capital soon to discuss the ongoing hostilities.
A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the administration clarified the two had had a "positive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was not "required".
The administration declined to provide any more details on why the talks had been postponed.
Earlier Events
The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Certain accounts claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with insiders claiming Trump 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 ceasefire proposal supported by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the existing battle lines.
"Leave it as is where it stands," he remarked.
Moscow has consistently objected against freezing the current line of contact.
Moscow was only interested in "permanent resolution", Lavrov said on this week, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a short-term truce.
Political Perspectives
The "underlying reasons" of the conflict demanded attention, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that include the recognition of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the demilitarisation of Ukraine – a non-starter for Ukraine and its Western allies.
The Ukrainian president stated talks regarding the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy.
He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the supply of extended-range arms to Ukraine.
Military Considerations
Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday preceded speculation that the US was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit inside Russia.
Zelensky said it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The talk about the missiles had proven to be a "significant input" in international relations", he remarked.