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

Just days after President Trump announced he intended to meet Russian President Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A initial meeting by the both countries' leading diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," President Trump informed reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I'll see what transpires."

• Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs Washington empty-handed

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest development in Trump's attempts to mediate an conclusion to hostilities in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

"It is essential to get Russia done," he declared.

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Middle East success achievable for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for almost four years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the key to achieving a agreement was Israel's move to strike Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that infuriated America's Arab allies but gave the president bargaining power to compel Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump gained from a long record of supporting the Israeli state dating back to his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that provided him with unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Combine Trump's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

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

The US leader has threatened to enact new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and intensify the war.

At the same time, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with the country and suspending arms shipments to the country - only to then back off in the face of worried European partners who warn a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

The president loves to tout his ability to meet and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to move the war any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may actually be using the US leader's wish for a deal – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a method of influencing him.

In July, Russia's leader consented to a summit in the US state just as it seemed probable that the president would approve on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the president of Russia called the US president who then promoted the potential summit in Budapest.

The following day, the president hosted Ukraine's leader at the White House, but departed without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I have been manipulated all my life by skilled operators, 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 long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a short period, Trump has shifted from considering the idea of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede the entire Donbas region – even territory Russia has been failed to capture.

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

During his election campaign last year, the candidate vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently abandoned that commitment, saying that ending the war is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his authority – and the challenge of establishing a framework for peace when both parties wants, or can afford to, cease hostilities.