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

This past week Trump indicated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Budapest in the coming fortnight to examine the war in Ukraine.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur recently - but the White House stated the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a meeting was no longer "required".

The administration withheld additional specifics on why the talks had been postponed.

Previous Developments

The US president had discussed a Budapest summit via telephone with Putin, a day before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources suggested his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with sources indicating Trump had pushed him to cede significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a deal with Moscow.

However, on this week Trump embraced a truce plan backed by Ukraine and EU officials to pause the conflict on the current front line.

"Let it be cut where it stands," he stated.

Moscow has repeatedly pushed back against pausing the current line of contact.

The Russian government was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Lavrov stated on Tuesday, indicating that freezing the front line would merely represent a brief pause.

Negotiating Stances

The "fundamental issues" of the conflict needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Moscow's terminology for a set of comprehensive conditions that involve the acceptance of total Russian authority over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of Ukraine – a unacceptable proposition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president said discussions about the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "employing all tactics" to avoid diplomacy.

He further commented 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 spontaneous discussion with the US leader recently preceded reports that the United States was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target Russian territory.

Zelensky stated it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had proven to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he added.