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There are "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a White House official has declared.

Recently the US president stated he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest in the coming fortnight to examine the Ukraine conflict.

A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the administration said the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a meeting was no longer "necessary".

The White House withheld any more details on the reason the negotiations had been postponed.

Background Context

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a day before hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources indicated his meeting with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with insiders indicating Trump had pushed him to give up large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on this week the American president endorsed a peace initiative supported by Ukraine and EU officials to halt the conflict on the existing battle lines.

"Let it be cut the way it is," he remarked.

Moscow has consistently objected against pausing the current line of contact.

The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister said on this week, suggesting that halting hostilities would simply constitute a short-term truce.

Negotiating Stances

The "root causes" of the war required resolution, Lavrov emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president said conversations concerning the current lines were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "doing everything" to avoid diplomacy.

He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader recently came ahead of rumors that the United States was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could possibly hit deep into Russia.

Zelensky said it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he remarked.