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Accounts of an impending US-Russia leadership meeting have been overstated, apparently.

Just days after Donald Trump announced he planned to confer with Russia's leader Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A initial get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump says he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The frequently changing meeting is just the latest twist in the president's attempts to mediate an end to war in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to celebrate that truce deal, the president turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

"We have to get the Russian situation done," he said.

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Middle East success achievable for the negotiation team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing several years.

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but provided the president leverage to compel Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president benefited from a history of supporting Israel since his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that provided him with unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Add in Trump's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an deal.

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

Trump has threatened to enact additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to supply Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the global economy and intensify the war.

At the same time, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with the country and suspending arms shipments to the country - only to then retreat in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president loves to tout his skill to sit down and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the war any closer to a peaceful end.

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

During the summer, Russia's leader consented to a summit in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was subsequently put on hold.

Recently, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the Russian leader called Trump who then touted the possible summit in Hungary.

The next day, Trump welcomed Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

The US leader maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

"As you are aware, I've been played throughout my career by the best of them, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

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

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

So, in a matter of days, Trump has shifted from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately urging Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – even land Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a truce along current battle lines – something Russia has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump vowed that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has subsequently abandoned that commitment, saying that concluding the war is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his authority – and the difficulty of finding a framework for peace when neither side desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.