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Accounts of an impending US-Russia presidential meeting have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russian President Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been suspended indefinitely.

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 executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky departs Washington without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest development in Trump's attempts to mediate an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a truce and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

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

However, the conditions that converged to make a Middle East success possible for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's move to strike representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a action that angered US partners in the Arab world but gave Trump leverage to pressure Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump benefited from a history of siding with Israel since his initial presidency, including his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the legality of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, in fact, is more popular among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to secure an deal.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, Trump has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between efforts to pressure the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump has warned to enact new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has criticized openly Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with the country and suspending weapon deliveries to the nation - only to then retreat in the wake of worried European partners who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet and hammer out agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the hostilities any nearer a resolution.

The Russian president may actually be exploiting the US leader's wish for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Putin consented to a summit in Alaska at the time when it seemed probable that the president would approve on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then touted the potential summit in Hungary.

The next day, Trump hosted Zelensky at the White House, but departed without agreements after a allegedly tense meeting.

The US leader maintained that he was not being manipulated 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 subsequently made note of the timeline of developments.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for Ukraine – for our nation – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he stated.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately pressuring Zelensky to surrender all of Donbas – even land Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a truce along current battle lines – a proposal Russia has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that commitment, admitting that concluding the war is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his authority – and the difficulty of establishing a framework for peace when both parties desires, or is able to, give up the fight.