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Reports of an impending US-Russia leadership meeting have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he intended to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - 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 fruitless discussion," President Trump informed reporters at the White House on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump says he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest twist in the president's efforts to mediate an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

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

"We have to get the Russian situation resolved," he declared.

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for almost several years.

Less Leverage

Per the lead negotiator, the crucial element to achieving a deal was Israel's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered US partners in the Arab world but gave the president bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a long record of siding with Israel since his first term, including his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than their prime minister – a situation that provided him with special sway over the Israeli leader.

Add in Trump's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, on the other hand, Trump has much less leverage. In recent months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has threatened 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 conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the country - only to then retreat in the wake of worried European partners who warn a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to move the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

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

During the summer, Putin consented to a summit in the US state just as it seemed probable that the president would sign off on legislative penalties supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was subsequently put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the US administration was seriously contemplating shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then touted the possible summit in Hungary.

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

The US leader insisted that he was not being played by the Russian president.

"You know, I have been manipulated all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well," he said.

However the Ukrainian leader subsequently made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – the Russian side almost automatically became less engaged in diplomacy," he stated.

Thus, in a matter of days, the president has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to Ukraine to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – including territory Russia has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a truce along present frontlines – something the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, the candidate vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the hostilities is proving harder than he anticipated.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his authority – and the challenge of finding a framework for peace when neither side desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.