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Accounts of an impending American-Russian leadership meeting have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he intended to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been suspended indefinitely.

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' top diplomats has been called off, too.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump informed the press at the White House on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The on-again, off-again summit is another development in the president's efforts to broker an conclusion to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a truce and hostage release deal in Gaza.

During a speech in Egypt recently to celebrate that truce deal, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

"We have to get Russia resolved," he declared.

However, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

Per the lead negotiator, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was Israel's move to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a history of siding with Israel dating back to his first term, encompassing his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

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

Combine Trump's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to force an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, the president has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump has warned to enact additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could harm the world's financial stability and intensify the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - then to back off in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

The president loves to tout his skill to meet and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be using the US leader's wish for a deal – and belief in direct negotiations - as a method of influencing him.

During the summer, Putin consented to a summit in the US state just as it appeared likely that the president would sign off on legislative penalties supported by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Budapest.

The following day, the president welcomed Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

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

"You know, I have been manipulated throughout my career by the best of them, and I came out really well," he remarked.

However the president of Ukraine subsequently commented on the sequence of events.

"As soon as the issue of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for our nation – the Russian side almost automatically became less engaged in negotiations," he said.

Thus, in a short period, the president has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Putin and confidentially pressuring Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – even territory Russia has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a truce along present frontlines – a proposal Russia has refused to accept.

During his election campaign last year, the candidate promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since abandoned that commitment, admitting that concluding the hostilities is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his authority – and the challenge of finding a framework for peace when neither side desires, or can afford to, cease hostilities.