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Reports of an impending US-Russia presidential meeting have been overstated, it seems.

Just days after Donald Trump announced 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 preliminary meeting by the two nations' leading diplomats has been cancelled, as well.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," President Trump informed reporters at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump states he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for Putin talks postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The frequently changing meeting is another twist in the president's attempts to mediate an conclusion to war in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a truce and prisoner exchange deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to celebrate that truce deal, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

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

Less Leverage

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's decision to strike Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but gave the president leverage to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump gained from a history of siding with the Israeli state since his first term, encompassing his choice to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter US policy on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is more popular among Israelis than their prime minister – a situation that provided him with special sway over the nation's head.

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an deal.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, the president has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between efforts to strong-arm the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump has warned to enact additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to supply Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with the country and suspending weapon deliveries to the nation - only to then retreat in the face of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

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

During the summer, Russia's leader agreed to a summit in the US state just as it appeared likely that the president would sign off on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was subsequently put on hold.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the Russian leader called the US president who then promoted the possible meeting in Hungary.

The following day, Trump welcomed Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

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

"You know, I've been played all my life by skilled operators, and I came out really well," he remarked.

However the president of Ukraine later made note of the sequence of events.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for our nation – Russia quickly became less engaged in negotiations," he stated.

Thus, in a short period, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – even land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

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

During his election campaign last year, Trump promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, admitting that ending the war is proving harder than he anticipated.

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