🔗 Share this article

Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia presidential summit have been overstated, apparently.

Only a few days after Donald Trump announced he intended to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been called off, too.

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

• Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The frequently changing meeting is just the latest twist in the president's attempts to broker an conclusion to hostilities in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the American leader after he orchestrated a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to commemorate that truce deal, the president addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for the negotiation team may be challenging to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for almost several years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but provided Trump leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a history of siding with the Israeli state since his initial presidency, including his decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to change US policy on the legality of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, actually, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that provided him with special sway 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 deal.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, the president has much less leverage. In recent 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 Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could disrupt the global economy and intensify the war.

At the same time, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the nation - only to then back off in the face of concerned European allies who warn a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

The president loves to tout his ability to sit down and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to advance the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

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

In July, Putin consented to a high-level meeting in Alaska at the time when it appeared likely that the president would approve on legislative penalties supported by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the Russian leader called Trump who then promoted the possible summit in Budapest.

The next day, Trump welcomed Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

"You know, I've been played throughout my career by the best of them, and I came out really well," he said.

But the president of Ukraine subsequently made note of the timeline of developments.

"Once the matter of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – the Russian side quickly became less engaged in negotiations," he stated.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially pressuring Zelensky to surrender the entire Donbas region – including land Russia has been unable to conquer.

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, Trump promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since abandoned that commitment, admitting that ending the hostilities is proving harder than he anticipated.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his power – and the challenge of establishing a peace plan when neither side wants, or can afford to, cease hostilities.