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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 conduct negotiations in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the ongoing hostilities.

A planning session between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was scheduled to occur this week - but the White House clarified the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a face-to-face session was not "necessary".

The White House withheld further information on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Previous Developments

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting during a call with the Russian leader, a day before meeting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Some reports suggested his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with sources suggesting the president had pressured him to give up extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Russia.

Yet, on this week the American president embraced a truce plan endorsed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the hostilities on the existing battle lines.

"Freeze the lines where it stands," he said.

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

The Russian government was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister stated on this week, implying that pausing conflict would simply constitute a brief pause.

Diplomatic Positions

The "root causes" of the hostilities demanded attention, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of comprehensive conditions that include the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the disarmament of the country – a unacceptable proposition for Ukraine and its European partners.

Zelensky commented conversations concerning the current lines were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.

He also said the only topic that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the provision of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Strategic Factors

The Russian president's unscheduled call with Trump recently came ahead of speculation that the United States was planning to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could theoretically target deep into Russia.

The Ukrainian leader said it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had proven to be a "strong investment" in international relations", he commented.