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Currently exist "no preparations" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the near term", a administration representative has announced.

Last Thursday the US president indicated he and the Russian president would meet in Budapest soon to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Sergei Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" conversation and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".

The administration declined to provide further information on why the talks had been put on hold.

Earlier Events

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a day before hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Some reports indicated his talks with Zelensky had been a "shouting match", with those familiar suggesting Trump had urged him to give up large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Moscow.

However, on this week the American president endorsed a peace initiative supported by Ukraine and EU officials to halt the conflict on the current front line.

"Leave it as is in its current state," he remarked.

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

The Russian government was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister commented on Tuesday, implying that halting hostilities would merely represent a brief pause.

Diplomatic Positions

The "underlying reasons" of the war needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Russian diplomatic language for a series of comprehensive conditions that encompass the recognition of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the demilitarisation of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its European partners.

The Ukrainian president commented talks regarding the current lines were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the sole subject that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the delivery of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Military Considerations

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump last Thursday came ahead of speculation that the US was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could possibly hit Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the weapons consideration that had compelled Moscow to participate in talks. The talk about the missiles had proven to be a "strong investment" in international relations", he remarked.