US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he did not want an"unnecessary meeting" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, after a senior White House official said the US and Russian presidents had no plans to meet in the near future. TASR reports, citing an AFP report.

"I don't want an unnecessary meeting," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked why plans for the leaders' meeting were on hold for now."I don't want to waste time, so we'll see what happens," the US president continued.

Meeting plans postponed

According to the BBC, the White House chief indicated that the main point of disagreement remains Russia's refusal to stop fighting on the current front line.

Trump spoke with the Kremlin leader by phone last week. After the call, he announced that he and Putin had agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary, and expressed expectations that the meeting could take place within two weeks.

However, an anonymous Trump administration source said Tuesday that Trump “has no plans to meet with President Putin in the near future.” Just hours before that statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that it was still unclear when the Trump-Putin summit would take place.

According to the BBC, a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was also scheduled for this week. However, the White House said the ministers had a productive phone conversation and the meeting was no longer necessary.

Trump's ceasefire efforts

Trump and Putin have met in person once this year, on August 15 at the Elmendorf–Richardson military base in Anchorage, Alaska. However, that summit ended without an agreement on a ceasefire in Ukraine or specific commitments, but the US and Russian presidents spoke of “progress”. Since returning to office in January, the US president has been trying to end the war in Ukraine, and according to AFP, he has also relied on his good relationship with Putin. However, Trump has repeatedly said that Putin has disappointed him and that he is quickly running out of patience with him.