US President Donald Trump has “no plans” to meet with Russia's Vladimir Putin “in the near future”, a White House spokesman said.
Last Thursday, Trump said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest for two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.
A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was due to take place this week, but the White House said they had a “productive” conversation and that the meeting was no longer “necessary”.
The White House did not share details about why the talks were suspended.
Trump discussed the Budapest summit by phone with Putin the day before meeting with Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky at the White House.
Some reports say his talks with Zelensky were a “screaming match” and sources suggest Trump pushed him to give up large swaths of territory in eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Russia.
However, on Monday Trump accepted a ceasefire proposal supported by Kiev and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the current front line.
“Let it be cut as it is,” he said.
Russia has repeatedly opposed freezing the current line of contact.
Moscow is only interested in “long-term, sustainable peace,” Lavrov said on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would only mean a temporary ceasefire.
The “root causes of the conflict” must be addressed, Lavrov said, using the Kremlin's term for a series of maximalist demands that include recognition of Russia's full sovereignty over the Donbass as well as the demilitarization of Ukraine, a setback for Kyiv and its European partners.
Zelensky said discussions about the front line are “the beginning of diplomacy,” but Russia is “doing everything to avoid diplomacy.”
He also stated that the only topic that Moscow could “pay attention to” was the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Putin's unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday came ahead of speculation that the US was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, which could potentially strike deep into Russia.
Zelensky said that it was the Tomahawk issue that forced Russia to enter into the discussion. Talk of missiles has proven to be a “strong investment in diplomacy,” he added.
