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Accounts of an impending US-Russia leadership summit have been overstated, apparently.

Just days after President Trump said he intended to meet Russia's leader Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A initial get-together by the both countries' leading diplomats has been called off, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," President Trump informed the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump states he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest development in the president's attempts to mediate an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that truce deal, Trump turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

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

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was Israel's move to strike Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but provided Trump bargaining power to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump benefited from a history of siding with Israel dating back to his initial presidency, including his choice to move the American embassy to the contested city, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a position that gave him unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Combine Trump's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to force an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, the president has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to pressure Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has warned to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

At the same time, the US leader has publicly berated Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with the country and suspending arms shipments to the nation - only to then retreat in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could destabilise the whole area.

The president loves to tout his ability to meet and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to move the war any nearer a peaceful end.

Putin may actually be using the US leader's wish for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a method of manipulating him.

During the summer, 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 legislation was subsequently put on hold.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending long-range missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned the US president who then promoted the possible summit in Hungary.

The following day, the president hosted Zelensky at the executive residence, but left empty-handed after a allegedly strained discussion.

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

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

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

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for our nation – the Russian side quickly became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately pressuring the Ukrainian president to cede the entire Donbas region – including land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

During his election campaign last year, the candidate promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that commitment, admitting that concluding the war is turning out more difficult than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his authority – and the challenge of finding a peace plan when neither side wants, or is able to, give up the fight.