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There are "no preparations" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russian President Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has declared.

Last Thursday the US president said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest soon to examine the ongoing hostilities.

A initial discussion between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House said the two had had a "positive" call and that a meeting was not "needed".

The administration withheld further information on the reason the negotiations had been put on hold.

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Certain accounts suggested his talks with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with sources claiming the president had pressured him to cede extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Russia.

However, on Monday Trump embraced a peace initiative endorsed by Ukraine and European leaders to pause the war on the current front line.

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

Russia has consistently objected against freezing the existing front lines.

The Russian government was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov stated on this week, indicating that halting hostilities would only amount to a brief pause.

Diplomatic Positions

The "fundamental issues" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, the Russian diplomat said, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of extensive requirements that encompass the acknowledgment of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president said talks regarding the current lines were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.

He also said the exclusive issue that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Strategic Factors

Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday preceded speculation that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could potentially strike deep into Russia.

Zelensky stated it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he remarked.