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There are "no plans" for US President President Trump to confer with Russia's Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has stated.

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

A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for this week - but the White House said the two had had a "positive" discussion and that a meeting was no longer "required".

The White House declined to provide further information on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Background Context

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts indicated his talks with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with insiders claiming Trump had urged him to give up large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.

However, on Monday Trump supported a truce plan backed by Kyiv and EU officials to halt the hostilities on the existing battle lines.

"Freeze the lines the way it is," he remarked.

Russia has consistently objected against freezing the existing front lines.

Moscow was only interested in "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would merely represent a short-term truce.

Diplomatic Positions

The "root causes" of the war required resolution, Lavrov emphasized, using Moscow's terminology for a series of maximalist demands that encompass the recognition of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president said discussions about the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the supply of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Strategic Factors

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday came ahead of speculation that the United States was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target Russian territory.

Zelensky stated it was the weapons consideration that had compelled Moscow to enter into dialogue. The talk about the missiles had emerged as a "significant input" in international relations", he added.