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Currently exist "no preparations" for American leader President Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "anytime soon", a White House official has stated.

Last Thursday the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would meet in Hungary's capital soon to address the ongoing hostilities.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for this week - but the White House said the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was no longer "required".

The White House withheld any more details on why the talks had been put on hold.

Background Context

Trump had discussed a Budapest summit during a call with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources claimed his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with insiders claiming the president had pushed him to cede large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on this week the American president embraced a truce plan supported by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the war on the existing battle lines.

"Leave it as is the way it is," he said.

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the current line of contact.

The Russian government was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Lavrov stated on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would simply constitute a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "underlying reasons" of the war needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the acceptance of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

Zelensky stated discussions about the current lines were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He also said the sole subject that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

Putin's spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently preceded reports that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target inside Russia.

Zelensky stated it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The talk about the weapons systems had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he added.