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Accounts of an upcoming American-Russian leadership meeting have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he intended to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A initial meeting by the two nations' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump told the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest development in Trump's attempts to mediate an conclusion to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to commemorate that truce deal, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"We have to get the Russian situation done," he declared.

However, the conditions that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for the negotiation team may be difficult to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing several years.

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the key to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's decision to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that infuriated America's Arab allies but gave Trump bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a long record of supporting the Israeli state dating back to his first term, encompassing his decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the legality of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his support for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that provided him with unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Add in Trump's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, Trump has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to enact additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and intensify the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and pausing weapon deliveries to the country - only to then retreat in the face of concerned European allies who warn a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the entire region.

The president loves to tout his ability to meet and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the hostilities any nearer a resolution.

The Russian president may in fact be exploiting the US leader's wish for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Putin agreed to a high-level meeting in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then promoted the possible summit in Budapest.

The next day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

The US leader maintained that he was not being played by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I've been played all my life by skilled operators, and I emerged successfully," he said.

But the Ukrainian leader subsequently made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the issue of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for us – for our nation – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – even land Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has finally decided on calling for a ceasefire along current battle lines – something the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that pledge, saying that ending the war is turning out more difficult than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of finding a peace plan when both parties wants, or can afford to, give up the fight.