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Reports of an impending US-Russia presidential meeting have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.

Just days after President Trump said he intended to confer with Russia's leader Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump informed the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs Washington without results

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest development in Trump's efforts to mediate an conclusion to war in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release deal in Gaza.

During a speech in the North African country last week to celebrate that truce deal, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

"It is essential to get Russia done," he said.

However, the conditions that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was the Israeli government's decision to strike representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that infuriated America's Arab allies but provided Trump bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump benefited from a long record of siding with Israel dating back to his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, in fact, is better regarded among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a position that gave him unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the region, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, Trump has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between efforts to strong-arm the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has threatened to enact new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the war.

At the same time, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, halting briefly information exchange with the country and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - then to back off in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to move the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may actually be using Trump's desire for a deal – and belief in direct negotiations - as a means of manipulating him.

During the summer, Russia's leader consented to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it seemed probable that the president would sign off on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then promoted the possible meeting in Hungary.

The following day, the president hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but departed empty-handed after a reportedly strained discussion.

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

"You know, I've been played all my life by the best of them, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

But the president of Ukraine subsequently made note of the timeline of developments.

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

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to Ukraine to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Putin and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – including territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a truce along current battle lines – a proposal Russia has refused to accept.

During his election campaign previously, the candidate promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since discarded that commitment, admitting that ending the war is proving harder than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of finding a framework for peace when both parties desires, or can afford to, cease hostilities.