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Reports of an impending American-Russian leadership meeting have been overstated, apparently.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russia's leader Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A initial get-together by the two nations' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," President Trump informed reporters at the White House on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for Putin talks postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs White House without results

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

While making remarks in the North African country last week to commemorate that truce deal, Trump turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"It is essential to get the Russian situation done," he declared.

Nonetheless, the conditions that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for the negotiation team may be difficult to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the key to unlocking a agreement was Israel's decision to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but gave Trump bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president gained from a long record of siding with Israel since his first term, encompassing his choice to move the US embassy to the contested city, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that provided him with special sway over the nation's head.

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

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

Trump has warned to impose new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the global economy and intensify the war.

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

The president often boasts about his skill to sit down and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any nearer a resolution.

The Russian president 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 agreed to a summit in Alaska at the time when it appeared likely that the president would approve on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia called the US president who then touted the potential meeting in Budapest.

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

Trump maintained that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

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

But the Ukrainian leader later made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less interested in negotiations," he stated.

So, in a short period, the president has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – even territory Russia has been failed to capture.

He has finally decided on calling for a truce along current battle lines – something Russia has refused to accept.

During his election campaign last year, the candidate promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has since discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the hostilities is turning out harder than he anticipated.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of finding a peace plan when both parties wants, or is able to, cease hostilities.