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Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia presidential summit have been overstated, it seems.

Just days after Donald Trump said he planned to confer with Russian President Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

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

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump informed the press at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves White House empty-handed

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest twist in the president's efforts to mediate an conclusion to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

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

"It is essential to get the Russian situation resolved," he said.

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

Less Leverage

According to the lead negotiator, the key to unlocking a agreement was the Israeli government's move to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but provided the president leverage to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president gained from a history of supporting Israel since his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the legality of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, in fact, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that gave him special sway over the nation's head.

Add in Trump's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to force an deal.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has significantly reduced influence. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to pressure the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to impose new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to supply the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the war.

Meanwhile, the president has publicly berated Zelensky, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the nation - then to back off in the face of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could destabilise the entire region.

Trump loves to tout his ability to sit down and negotiate deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

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

During the summer, Putin consented to a summit in the US state at the time when it seemed probable that Trump would approve on congressional sanctions package backed by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then touted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The next day, Trump hosted Zelensky at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly tense meeting.

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

"You know, I've been played throughout my career by the best of them, and I came out really well," he said.

But the Ukrainian leader later made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the issue of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a matter of days, Trump has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially pressuring Zelensky to surrender all of Donbas – even land Russia has been failed to capture.

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

On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that pledge, saying that concluding the war is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his authority – and the challenge of finding a framework for peace when both parties wants, or is able to, cease hostilities.