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

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russian President Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed the press at the White House on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as President Zelensky leaves White House without results

The frequently changing summit is another twist in the president's attempts to broker an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a truce and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, the president turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

"We have to get Russia done," he said.

However, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was Israel's move to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered US partners in the Arab world but gave the president bargaining power to compel Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a long record of siding with Israel since his first term, encompassing his choice to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.

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

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has significantly reduced leverage. In recent months, he has vacillated between efforts to strong-arm Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has warned to impose additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has publicly berated Zelensky, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the nation - then to retreat in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the entire region.

The president often boasts about his ability to sit down and hammer out agreements, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to move the war any nearer a resolution.

Putin may actually be using Trump's desire for a deal – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of influencing him.

In July, Putin consented to a summit in the US state just as it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was subsequently put on hold.

Last week, as reports spread that the White House was considering seriously shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then promoted the potential meeting in Hungary.

The following day, Trump welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but departed without agreements after a allegedly strained discussion.

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

"You know, I have been manipulated throughout my career by the best of them, and I emerged successfully," he said.

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

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a short period, the president has shifted from considering the idea of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially urging Zelensky to surrender the entire Donbas region – including territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

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

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

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