🔗 Share this article

Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia leadership meeting have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after Donald Trump said he planned to meet Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

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

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed reporters at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I will observe what happens."

• Trump states he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The on-again, off-again summit is another development in the president's attempts to broker an conclusion to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

During a speech in the North African country recently to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

"It is essential to get the Russian situation done," he declared.

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's decision to strike representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but gave Trump leverage to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a history of siding with Israel dating back to his initial presidency, encompassing his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

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

Combine the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to force an deal.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less influence. In recent months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has warned to impose additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and intensify the war.

At the same time, the US leader has publicly berated Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the country - then to back off in the wake of concerned European allies who warn a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the entire region.

Trump often boasts about his ability to sit down and negotiate agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to move the war any closer to a peaceful end.

Putin may in fact be using the US leader's wish for a settlement – and faith in direct negotiations - as a method of influencing him.

During the summer, Putin consented to a summit in Alaska at the time when it appeared likely that the president would sign off on legislative penalties supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was subsequently delayed.

Recently, as reports spread that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then promoted the possible meeting in Hungary.

The following day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the executive residence, but left empty-handed after a allegedly strained discussion.

Trump maintained that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

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

But the Ukrainian leader subsequently commented on the sequence of events.

"As soon as the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for Ukraine – for Ukraine – the Russian side quickly became less engaged in negotiations," he stated.

So, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – even territory Russia has been failed to capture.

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

During his election campaign last year, the candidate vowed that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that commitment, admitting that concluding the hostilities is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his power – and the challenge of finding a peace plan when both parties wants, or can afford to, give up the fight.