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Accounts of an upcoming American-Russian presidential summit have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Just days after President Trump said he planned to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A initial meeting by the both countries' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I prefer not 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 happens."

• Trump states he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves White House without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is another twist in Trump's efforts to mediate an conclusion to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to commemorate that truce deal, the president turned to Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

"It is essential to get Russia done," he declared.

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Middle East success achievable for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the key to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but gave Trump bargaining power to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 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 choice to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the legality of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his support for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that provided him with unique influence over the nation's head.

Add in the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to force an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, on the other hand, Trump has significantly reduced influence. In recent months, he has swung between efforts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader 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 such actions could disrupt the global economy and intensify the conflict.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - only to then retreat in the face of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be using Trump's desire for a settlement – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

During the summer, Putin consented to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it seemed probable that Trump would sign off on legislative penalties supported by GOP senators. That bill was subsequently put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then promoted the potential meeting in Hungary.

The following day, the president welcomed Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but departed empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

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

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

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a short period, the president has shifted from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially pressuring Zelensky to cede the entire Donbas region – even territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

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

On the campaign trail previously, Trump promised that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the hostilities is turning out harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his authority – and the difficulty of finding a framework for peace when both parties desires, or is able to, give up the fight.