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There are "no arrangements" for American leader Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a White House official has announced.

This past week Trump indicated he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest soon to discuss the ongoing hostilities.

A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for this week - but the White House clarified the two had had a "productive" 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 delayed.

Background Context

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting over the phone with Putin, a just prior to hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts indicated his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "heated exchange", with insiders claiming the president had urged him to relinquish large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a settlement with Moscow.

Yet, on Monday the American president embraced a truce plan endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the present positions.

"Let it be cut in its current state," he said.

Moscow has consistently objected against pausing the present battle positions.

The Russian government was exclusively seeking "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov stated on this week, indicating that pausing conflict would simply constitute a temporary ceasefire.

Diplomatic Positions

The "fundamental issues" of the war required resolution, Lavrov emphasized, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that involve the acknowledgment of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its Western allies.

Zelensky said conversations concerning the current lines were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Russia was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

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

Strategic Factors

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump recently occurred before speculation that the United States was considering delivering extended-range cruise missiles to Ukrainian forces that could possibly hit inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the Tomahawks issue that had compelled Moscow to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he remarked.