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

This past week the US president indicated he and the Kremlin leader would meet in Budapest soon to examine the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the administration said the two had had a "positive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was not "necessary".

The White House did not share any more details on why the talks had been delayed.

Background Context

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting over the phone with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with insiders suggesting the president had urged him to relinquish large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Russia.

However, on this week the American president supported a peace initiative endorsed by Ukraine and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the existing battle lines.

"Freeze the lines in its current state," he stated.

Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.

Moscow was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov commented on this week, suggesting that pausing conflict would simply constitute a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "underlying reasons" of the war required resolution, Lavrov stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that include the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president said conversations concerning the front line were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.

He additionally stated the sole subject that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently came ahead of speculation that the United States was planning to provide distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could potentially strike inside Russia.

Zelensky stated it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The talk about the missiles had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he added.