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Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia leadership summit have been overstated, apparently.

Only a few days after Donald Trump announced he intended to meet Russia's leader Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

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

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed the press at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I will observe what happens."

• Trump states he did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for Putin talks postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs White House without results

The frequently changing summit is just the latest twist in Trump's efforts to broker an conclusion to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

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

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for the negotiation team may be difficult to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing four years.

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's move to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but gave Trump bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a history of siding with the Israeli state dating back to his first term, including his choice to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

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

Combine the president's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the region, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to force an deal.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, Trump has significantly reduced leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to pressure Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has threatened to enact new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the global economy and further escalate the war.

Meanwhile, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with the country and pausing arms shipments to the nation - only to then back off in the face of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president loves to tout his ability to sit down and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the war any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be exploiting Trump's desire for a settlement – and belief in direct negotiations - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Putin agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska at the time when it seemed probable that the president would approve on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That legislation was subsequently put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously sending long-range missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then promoted the possible summit in Hungary.

The following day, the president hosted Zelensky at the executive residence, but departed without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

Trump maintained that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

"You know, I have been manipulated all my life by the best of them, and I emerged successfully," he remarked.

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

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

So, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and privately urging Zelensky to surrender the entire Donbas region – including territory Russia has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately decided on advocating a ceasefire along present frontlines – something the Russian government has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump vowed that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that pledge, saying that ending the war is turning out harder than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of finding a framework for peace when both parties wants, or can afford to, cease hostilities.