A White House official stated that there are “no plans” for U.S. President Donald Trump to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “in the near future.”
Last Thursday, Trump had said that he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.
A preparatory meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was scheduled for this week, but the White House said that the two had a “productive” phone call, and a meeting is no longer “necessary.”
On Monday, Trump supported the idea of freezing the conflict in Ukraine along the current frontline.
“Let it stop where it is,” he said Monday, referring to the contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has consistently opposed freezing the current contact line.
Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow is interested only in a “long-term and sustainable peace,” implying that freezing the frontline would only constitute a temporary ceasefire.
