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Accounts of an upcoming American-Russian presidential summit have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

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

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," President 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 did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky departs White House without results

The frequently changing summit is just the latest twist in Trump's efforts to mediate an conclusion to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to commemorate that truce deal, the president turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

However, the conditions that aligned to make a Middle East success achievable for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for nearing several years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the key to achieving a deal was the Israeli government's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided the president bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a long record of siding with Israel dating back to his first term, including his choice to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to alter America's position on the legality of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is more popular among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a situation that provided him with unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Combine Trump's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

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 the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has threatened to enact new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the nation - only to then back off in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

Trump often boasts about his ability to sit down and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

Putin may in fact be using Trump's desire for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

During the summer, Putin agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it seemed probable that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by GOP senators. That bill was subsequently put on hold.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then touted the possible meeting in Hungary.

The next day, Trump welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but departed empty-handed after a allegedly strained discussion.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

"As you are aware, I have been manipulated throughout my career by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he remarked.

However the president of Ukraine later made note of the timeline of developments.

"As soon as the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for our nation – Russia quickly became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a short period, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to Ukraine to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – including land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

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

During his election campaign last year, Trump vowed that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that pledge, saying that concluding the hostilities is proving more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when neither side wants, or can afford to, give up the fight.