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There are "no plans" 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 the US president said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest soon to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A planning session between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the White House clarified the two had had a "constructive" discussion and that a meeting was not "required".

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

Earlier Events

Trump had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting during a call with Putin, a day before meeting Ukrainian President President Zelensky in the White House.

Various sources suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with sources suggesting Trump had pushed him to relinquish significant territories of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.

Nevertheless, on this week the American president supported a peace initiative supported by Ukraine and EU officials to freeze the conflict on the present positions.

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

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

The Russian government was exclusively seeking "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday, suggesting that freezing the front line would merely represent a temporary ceasefire.

Negotiating Stances

The "fundamental issues" of the war required resolution, Lavrov stated, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of maximalist demands that encompass the acceptance of complete Moscow control over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of the country – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its EU supporters.

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

He further commented the sole subject that could cause Russia to "pay attention" was that of the delivery of extended-range arms to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's unscheduled call with the US leader recently came ahead of rumors that the US was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukrainian forces that could potentially strike inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader stated it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The talk about the weapons systems had turned out to be a "valuable contribution" in negotiations", he remarked.