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Accounts of an impending US-Russia presidential summit have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.

Just days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

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

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

• Trump says he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves White House without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is another twist in the president's attempts to mediate an conclusion to war in Ukraine – a topic of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a truce and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

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

Nonetheless, the conditions 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 nearing several years.

Less Leverage

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was Israel's move to attack Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided the president bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president benefited from a history of supporting the Israeli state dating back to his first term, encompassing his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is better regarded among Israelis than their prime minister – a situation that gave him 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 diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, the president has significantly reduced leverage. In recent months, he has vacillated between efforts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has threatened to enact additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and intensify the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has publicly berated Ukraine's president, 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 disrupt the whole area.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet 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 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 consented to a high-level meeting in the US state just as it seemed probable that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the Russian leader called the US president who then promoted the possible meeting in Hungary.

The following day, Trump welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but left empty-handed after a allegedly strained discussion.

The US leader insisted that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

"As you are aware, I have been manipulated all my life by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he remarked.

However the Ukrainian leader subsequently made note of the timeline of developments.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less engaged in negotiations," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Putin and confidentially urging Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – even land Russia has been failed to capture.

He has finally decided on advocating a truce along current battle lines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that ending the war is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

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