🔗 Share this article Plans for Putin-Trump Summit Postponed Days After Budapest Talks Announced Trump and Putin last met in late summer in the northern US state and the US president had said additional talks would occur in the Hungarian capital Currently exist "no arrangements" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has stated. This past week the US president indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest in the coming fortnight to examine the Ukraine conflict. A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the White House said the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "required". The administration withheld further information on the reason the negotiations had been delayed. Earlier Events Trump had discussed a Budapest summit over the phone with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Certain accounts claimed his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with sources suggesting the president had pushed him to cede significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Moscow. Yet, on this week the American president embraced a truce plan backed by Kyiv and EU officials to pause the hostilities on the current front line. "Leave it as is in its current state," he stated. Russia has repeatedly pushed back against halting the current line of contact. Moscow was exclusively seeking "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister said on this week, implying that halting hostilities would simply constitute a brief pause. Political Perspectives The "root causes" of the conflict demanded attention, Lavrov emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a set of maximalist demands that involve the recognition of total Russian authority over the Donbas as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its Western allies. Zelensky said conversations concerning the battle positions were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue. He further commented the only topic that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine. Strategic Factors Putin's unscheduled call with Trump recently came ahead of rumors that the US was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could potentially strike Russian territory. Zelensky said it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The talk about the weapons systems had emerged as a "significant input" in negotiations", he commented.