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Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia leadership summit have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after Donald Trump said he intended to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary meeting by the both countries' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump informed reporters at the White House on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump says he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as President Zelensky departs White House empty-handed

The on-again, off-again meeting is another development in the president's attempts to broker an conclusion to war in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a truce and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that truce deal, the president turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"It is essential to get Russia resolved," he declared.

However, the conditions that aligned to make a Middle East success possible for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

Per the lead negotiator, the key to unlocking a agreement was Israel's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided the president bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president benefited from a long record of supporting Israel since his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

The US president, actually, is more popular among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a position that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.

Combine the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to secure an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, the president has much less influence. In recent months, he has swung between efforts to pressure the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the global economy and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the country - then to retreat in the face of worried European partners who warn a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

Trump often boasts about his ability to meet and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the hostilities any closer to a resolution.

Putin may actually be using Trump's desire for a deal – and faith in direct negotiations - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Russia's leader consented to a high-level meeting in the US state just as it seemed probable that Trump would approve on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was subsequently delayed.

Recently, as reports spread that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then promoted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The next day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left without agreements after a allegedly strained discussion.

The US leader maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

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

However the Ukrainian leader subsequently commented on the sequence of events.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he stated.

So, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede the entire Donbas region – including territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has finally settled on advocating a truce along present frontlines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently abandoned that commitment, admitting that ending the hostilities is turning out harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his authority – and the challenge of establishing a framework for peace when neither side desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.