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

Just days after Donald Trump said he planned to meet Russian President Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary meeting by the two nations' top diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as President Zelensky leaves White House without results

The on-again, off-again summit is another development in Trump's efforts to mediate an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a subject of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump turned to Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

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

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Middle East success possible for the negotiation team may be difficult to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for nearing several years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a action that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but gave the president leverage to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump benefited from a history of siding with the Israeli state since his initial presidency, including his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the legality of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that provided him with special sway over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, the president has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to strong-arm the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the world's financial stability and intensify the war.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with the country and suspending arms shipments to the nation - then to back off in the wake of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

Trump often boasts about his skill to meet and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the war any closer to a resolution.

The Russian president may actually be exploiting the US leader's wish for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a method of manipulating him.

During the summer, Russia's leader agreed to a summit in the US state just as it seemed probable that Trump would sign off on legislative penalties supported by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Last week, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned the US president who then touted the possible summit in Hungary.

The following day, Trump hosted Zelensky at the White House, but departed without agreements 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 successfully," he remarked.

But the Ukrainian leader later commented on the timeline of developments.

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

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has shifted from considering the idea of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede the entire Donbas region – even land Russia has been failed to capture.

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

During his election campaign previously, the candidate vowed that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that pledge, admitting that ending the hostilities is turning out more difficult than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when neither side desires, or is able to, give up the fight.