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Reports of an upcoming American-Russian leadership meeting have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.

Just days after Donald Trump said he intended 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 preliminary get-together by the both countries' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump told reporters at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The frequently changing summit is just the latest twist in the president's attempts to broker an end to war in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he orchestrated a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country recently to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the key to achieving a deal was Israel's move to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a history of supporting the Israeli state since his first term, including his choice to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to change America's position on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, in fact, is better regarded among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a situation that provided him with special sway over the Israeli leader.

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

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to pressure the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has warned to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and intensify the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has publicly berated Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the country - then to retreat in the face of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the entire region.

Trump often boasts about his ability to sit down and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the war any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be using the US leader's wish for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a method of influencing him.

In July, Putin agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska at the time when it seemed probable that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That legislation was subsequently put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then promoted the possible meeting in Budapest.

The following day, Trump welcomed Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly strained discussion.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I've been played all my life by the best of them, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

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

"Once the matter of advanced weaponry became a little further away for us – for our nation – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in negotiations," he said.

So, in a short period, the president has bounced from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately urging the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – including land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately decided on calling for a truce along current battle lines – something the Russian government has rejected.

During his election campaign last year, the candidate vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has subsequently abandoned that commitment, admitting that ending the war is proving harder than he expected.

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