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Accounts of an impending American-Russian leadership meeting have been overstated, apparently.

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

A preliminary meeting by the both countries' top diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump informed the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I will observe what happens."

• Trump states he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves White House without results

The on-again, off-again summit is another development in the president's efforts to broker an conclusion to hostilities in Ukraine – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country recently to celebrate that truce deal, the president turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the conditions that converged to make a Middle East success achievable for the negotiation 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 key to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated America's Arab allies but gave the president bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president gained from a history of siding with the Israeli state since his first term, encompassing his decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

The US president, actually, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him special sway over the nation's head.

Add in 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, on the other hand, Trump has significantly reduced influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has warned to impose new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the war.

At the same time, the US leader has criticized openly Ukraine's president, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with the country and suspending weapon deliveries 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 skill to meet and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the war any nearer a peaceful end.

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

In July, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it seemed probable that the president would approve on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then promoted the possible meeting in Hungary.

The next day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but left without agreements after a allegedly strained discussion.

Trump maintained that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

"As you are aware, I've been played throughout my career by skilled operators, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

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

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less engaged in negotiations," he said.

Thus, in a short period, Trump has bounced from considering the idea of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially urging Zelensky to surrender all of Donbas – even land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has finally settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

During his election campaign previously, Trump promised that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the war is turning out harder than he anticipated.

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