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Reports of an upcoming US-Russia presidential summit have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Just days after Donald Trump announced he planned to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

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

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Trump states he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as President Zelensky departs Washington without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest twist in Trump's attempts to broker an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

While making remarks in the North African country last week to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, Trump turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

However, the circumstances that converged to make a Middle East success possible for the negotiation team may be challenging to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for almost four years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the key to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to strike Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but gave the president leverage to pressure Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a long record of supporting the Israeli state since his first term, encompassing his decision to move the American embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a position that gave him special sway over the nation's head.

Add in Trump's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to force an deal.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, the president has significantly reduced influence. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump has threatened to impose additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and intensify the war.

At the same time, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the nation - then to back off in the face of concerned European allies who warn a defeat of Ukraine could destabilise the whole area.

The president often boasts about his ability to sit down and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to advance the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be exploiting Trump's desire for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Putin consented to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it seemed probable that the president would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Last week, as reports spread that the US administration was considering seriously sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned the US president who then promoted the possible meeting in Budapest.

The next day, the president hosted Zelensky at the White House, but departed without agreements after a reportedly tense meeting.

Trump maintained that he was not being manipulated by the Russian president.

"You know, I've been played all my life by skilled operators, and I emerged successfully," he remarked.

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

"Once the matter of advanced weaponry became a little further away for Ukraine – for our nation – the Russian side quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to cede all of Donbas – even land Russia has been failed to capture.

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

During his election campaign previously, Trump vowed that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has subsequently abandoned that pledge, saying that concluding the hostilities is proving more difficult than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his authority – and the difficulty of establishing a framework for peace when neither side desires, or can afford to, give up the fight.