🔗 Share this article Preparations for Putin-Trump Meeting Shelved Days After Hungarian Capital Negotiations Proposed Trump and Putin previously convened in late summer in the northern US state and the US president had said additional discussions would take place in the Hungarian capital There are "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russian President Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has announced. Recently Trump said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to discuss the ongoing hostilities. A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House clarified the two had had a "positive" conversation and that a meeting was no longer "required". The White House declined to provide further information on why the talks had been postponed. Background Context The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting during a call with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House. Various sources indicated his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with those familiar indicating the president had pushed him to relinquish significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Moscow. However, on this week the American president endorsed a peace initiative backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the war on the existing battle lines. "Leave it as is where it stands," he remarked. Moscow has consistently objected against freezing the present battle positions. The Russian government was solely focused on "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would simply constitute a temporary ceasefire. Political Perspectives The "root causes" of the war needed to be addressed, Lavrov stated, using Moscow's terminology for a set of extensive requirements that involve the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its Western allies. Zelensky stated conversations concerning the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy. He additionally stated the exclusive issue that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military. Military Considerations Putin's unplanned conversation with Trump recently came ahead of reports that the US was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could potentially strike Russian territory. Zelensky asserted it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The discussion regarding the missiles had turned out to be a "strong investment" in negotiations", he added.