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Currently exist "no preparations" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has stated.

This past week Trump said he and the Kremlin leader would meet in Budapest in the coming fortnight to examine the Ukraine conflict.

A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "necessary".

The administration did not share additional specifics on why the talks had been postponed.

Background Context

The US president had raised the possibility of a Budapest summit via telephone with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts indicated his talks with Zelensky had been a "contentious discussion", with insiders suggesting Trump had pushed him to cede extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Russia.

Nevertheless, on this week Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to halt the war on the current front line.

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

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against halting the existing front lines.

The Russian government was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister said on this week, indicating that pausing conflict would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the war required resolution, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that include the acceptance of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

Zelensky commented discussions about the front line were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to prevent dialogue.

He further commented the only topic that could make Moscow "become engaged" was that of the provision of long-range weapons to the Ukrainian military.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's unscheduled call with Trump recently came ahead of speculation that the US was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could possibly hit inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader said it was the missile discussion that had pressured the Kremlin to enter into dialogue. The discussion regarding the missiles had proven to be a "strong investment" in negotiations", he added.