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

Only a few days after Donald Trump said he planned to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir 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' leading diplomats has been called off, too.

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," President 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."

• Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs White House without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is another development in the president's efforts to broker an conclusion to war in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to celebrate that truce deal, Trump turned to Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

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

However, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for nearing several years.

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the key to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but gave Trump leverage to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a history of supporting the Israeli state dating back to his first term, including his decision to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the legality of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, in fact, is more popular 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 key Arab players in the area, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to secure an deal.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less influence. In recent months, he has swung between attempts to pressure Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has threatened to impose additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

At the same time, the president has publicly berated Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with the country and pausing arms shipments to the nation - only to then back off in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

The president loves to tout his ability to meet and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to move the war any closer to a peaceful end.

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

In July, Russia's leader consented to a high-level meeting in Alaska at the time when it seemed probable that the president would sign off on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as reports spread that the US administration was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then touted the potential meeting in Hungary.

The next day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the executive residence, but departed empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

The US leader insisted that he was not being played by the Russian president.

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

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

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – the Russian side quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he stated.

So, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from considering the idea of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and privately urging Zelensky to surrender all of Donbas – even land Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a ceasefire along present frontlines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since abandoned that commitment, saying that ending the hostilities is proving more difficult than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when neither side desires, or can afford to, give up the fight.