Arrangements for Putin-Trump Meeting Shelved Shortly After Hungarian Capital Negotiations Suggested

Trump and Putin
Putin and Trump last met in August in Alaska and the American leader had indicated additional discussions would occur in Budapest

Currently exist "no preparations" for American leader President Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has declared.

This past week Trump indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Hungary's capital within two weeks to discuss the ongoing hostilities.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the administration clarified the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a meeting was no longer "required".

The White House declined to provide any more details on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.

Previous Developments

Trump had discussed a Budapest summit during a call with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Some reports claimed his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with sources indicating Trump had urged him to relinquish large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Russia.

Yet, on Monday the American president supported a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to halt the hostilities on the existing battle lines.

"Let it be cut the way it is," he said.

Moscow has consistently objected against pausing the current line of contact.

Moscow was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov said on this week, suggesting that freezing the front line would simply constitute a short-term truce.

Negotiating Stances

The "root causes" of the war demanded attention, the Russian diplomat said, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of complete Moscow control over the eastern region as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its European partners.

The Ukrainian president commented talks regarding the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "taking all measures" to avoid diplomacy.

He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the provision of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Strategic Factors

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump recently came ahead of rumors that the US was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had turned out to be a "strong investment" in negotiations", he remarked.

Michael Hernandez
Michael Hernandez

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