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

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary get-together by the both countries' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," President Trump informed the press at the White House on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as President Zelensky departs Washington without results

The on-again, off-again summit is another development in the president's attempts to mediate an conclusion to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

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

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

However, the conditions that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a deal was Israel's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided Trump bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump gained from a history of supporting Israel dating back to his first term, encompassing his choice to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the legality of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, actually, is more popular among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a situation that gave him unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to force an deal.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, the president has much less influence. In recent months, he has swung between attempts to pressure Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to enact additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and intensify the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with the country and pausing arms shipments to the nation - only to then retreat in the wake of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to advance the hostilities any closer to a resolution.

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

During the summer, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting in the US state just as it seemed probable that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as reports spread that the White House was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the Russian leader called Trump who then touted the potential meeting in Hungary.

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

The US leader 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 emerged really well," he remarked.

However the president of Ukraine later made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the matter of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to Ukraine to planning a meeting in Hungary with Putin and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to cede the entire Donbas region – including land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has finally settled on advocating a ceasefire along present frontlines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump vowed that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that ending the war is turning out more difficult than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his authority – and the challenge of finding a framework for peace when both parties desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.