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There are "no plans" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russian President Putin "anytime soon", a administration representative has announced.

This past week the US president said he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to address the Ukraine conflict.

A preparatory meeting between America's top diplomat Marco Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held recently - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".

The administration did not share further information on the reason the negotiations had been delayed.

Earlier Events

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

Certain accounts suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar indicating Trump had pressured him to give up large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a settlement with Moscow.

However, on Monday Trump supported a peace initiative backed by Kyiv and EU officials to freeze the conflict on the existing battle lines.

"Let it be cut in its current state," he remarked.

Moscow has frequently resisted against freezing the current line of contact.

The Russian government was only interested in "enduring stability", Russia's foreign minister stated on Tuesday, suggesting that halting hostilities would simply constitute a temporary ceasefire.

Negotiating Stances

The "root causes" of the hostilities needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Russian diplomatic language for a set of maximalist demands that include the acceptance of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a non-starter for Kyiv and its European partners.

Zelensky commented conversations concerning the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Russia was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He further commented the only topic that could cause Russia to "become engaged" was that of the supply of distance-capable munitions to Ukraine.

Strategic Factors

Putin's unplanned conversation with the US leader last Thursday preceded reports that the United States was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the weapons consideration that had pressured the Kremlin to participate in talks. The discussion regarding the missiles had emerged as a "valuable contribution" in diplomacy", he remarked.