🔗 Share this article Arrangements for Putin-Trump Meeting Delayed Days Following Budapest Talks Suggested Putin and Trump previously convened in August in the northern US state and the US president had stated further discussions would take place in Budapest There are "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russia's Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has stated. This past week Trump indicated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine. A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the administration clarified the two had had a "productive" call and that a face-to-face session was no longer "necessary". The White House did not share any more details on why the talks had been delayed. Background Context The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting over the phone with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House. Various sources suggested his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with insiders suggesting the president had pushed him to cede large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Russia. Nevertheless, on Monday the American president endorsed 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 said. Moscow has consistently objected against halting the present battle positions. Moscow was only interested in "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister stated on this week, indicating that pausing conflict would only amount to a short-term truce. Political Perspectives The "underlying reasons" of the war needed to be addressed, Lavrov emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a set of maximalist demands that include the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its EU supporters. The Ukrainian president said talks regarding the front line were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue. He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to Ukraine. Military Considerations Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently preceded speculation that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia. Zelensky stated it was the weapons consideration that had compelled Moscow to participate in talks. The discussion regarding the missiles had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he commented.