Arrangements for Trump-Putin Meeting Delayed Shortly After Budapest Talks Suggested

Trump and Putin
Trump and Putin last met in August in the northern US state and the US president had said additional talks would occur in Budapest

There are "no arrangements" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has declared.

Last Thursday Trump indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest soon to discuss the ongoing hostilities.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" call and that a meeting was not "necessary".

The White House withheld further information on why the talks had been delayed.

Earlier Events

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with insiders claiming Trump had pushed him to relinquish significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Russia.

Yet, on Monday Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal backed by Ukraine and European leaders to pause the hostilities on the current front line.

"Freeze the lines the way it is," he remarked.

Moscow has consistently objected against pausing the existing front lines.

The Russian government was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Lavrov commented on this week, implying that halting hostilities would merely represent a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "root causes" of the war needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that encompass the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president said discussions about the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.

He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "pay attention" was that of the delivery of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Strategic Factors

The Russian president's spontaneous discussion with Trump last Thursday preceded rumors that the United States was planning to provide extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target deep into Russia.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to participate in talks. The discussion regarding the missiles had proven to be a "significant input" in diplomacy", he commented.

Nicole Fletcher
Nicole Fletcher

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