Preparations for Trump-Putin Summit Shelved Days After Budapest Negotiations Suggested

Trump and Putin
Putin and Trump previously convened in August in Alaska and the US president had indicated additional discussions would occur in the Hungarian capital

There are "no plans" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Putin "in the near term", a White House official has declared.

Recently the US president stated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest in the coming fortnight to address the ongoing hostilities.

A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the administration said the two had had a "productive" call and that a face-to-face session was no longer "needed".

The administration declined to provide additional specifics on why the talks had been put on hold.

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit during a call with Putin, a day before meeting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Various sources indicated his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with sources suggesting Trump had urged him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Russia.

However, on Monday the American president endorsed a truce plan backed by Kyiv and EU officials to pause the hostilities on the existing battle lines.

"Let it be cut where it stands," he stated.

Moscow has frequently resisted against pausing the current line of contact.

The Russian government was only interested in "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister stated on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would simply constitute a short-term truce.

Negotiating Stances

The "root causes" of the war required resolution, Lavrov stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a set of comprehensive conditions that involve the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president said discussions about the battle positions were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.

He also said the only topic that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday came ahead of reports that the United States was preparing to send extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could potentially strike Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader said it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to participate in talks. The talk about the weapons systems had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in international relations", he commented.

Michael Valenzuela
Michael Valenzuela

Elara Vance is a software engineer and tech journalist passionate about open source ecosystems and developer advocacy.

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