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

Just days after President Trump announced he intended to meet Russia's leader Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

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

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump informed reporters at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Trump states he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as President Zelensky departs White House without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest development in the president's efforts to broker an conclusion to hostilities in Ukraine – a subject of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a truce and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, the president turned to Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

"We have to get Russia done," he declared.

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing four years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was Israel's move to strike representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a action that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but gave Trump leverage to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president benefited from a history of supporting the Israeli state since his initial presidency, including his choice to move the US embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the legality of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

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

Add in Trump's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, on the other hand, the president has significantly reduced leverage. In recent months, he has vacillated between attempts to pressure the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to impose additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that such actions could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and pausing weapon deliveries to the country - only to then retreat in the wake of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

Trump loves to tout his skill to meet and negotiate agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to move the war any nearer a peaceful end.

Putin may actually be exploiting the US leader's wish for a settlement – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Russia's leader agreed to a summit in the US state just as it appeared likely that the president would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Last week, as reports spread that the US administration was considering seriously shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the president of Russia called the US president who then touted the possible summit in Hungary.

The following day, the president welcomed Ukraine's leader 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 all my life by skilled operators, and I came out successfully," 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 Ukraine – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a short period, Trump has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Putin and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender the entire Donbas region – even land Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

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

During his election campaign last year, Trump vowed that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since discarded that commitment, saying that ending the hostilities is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his authority – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when both parties desires, or can afford to, cease hostilities.