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

Last Thursday Trump stated he and the Kremlin leader would conduct negotiations in Budapest in the coming fortnight to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for this week - but the administration said the two had had a "constructive" call and that a meeting was no longer "needed".

The White House did not share further information on why the talks had been delayed.

Earlier Events

The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources claimed his meeting with Zelensky had been a "contentious discussion", with those familiar suggesting Trump had pushed him to cede large areas of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.

However, on Monday the American president supported a ceasefire proposal endorsed by Ukraine and European leaders to halt the conflict on the existing battle lines.

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

Russia has consistently objected against pausing the existing front lines.

The Russian government was only interested in "permanent resolution", Russia's foreign minister stated on this week, indicating that pausing conflict would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the hostilities demanded attention, Lavrov stated, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that encompass the acknowledgment of complete Moscow control over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president commented conversations concerning the front line were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.

He also said the only topic that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's unplanned conversation with Trump last Thursday occurred before rumors that the United States was preparing to send distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could potentially strike inside Russia.

Zelensky asserted it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had turned out to be a "significant input" in negotiations", he commented.