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

Only a few days after President Trump said he planned to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

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

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," 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 happens."

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

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest twist in Trump's attempts to broker an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a subject of increased attention 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 recently to commemorate that truce deal, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

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

Nonetheless, the conditions that converged to make a Middle East success achievable for the negotiation team may be difficult to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for almost four years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a deal was the Israeli government's decision to strike Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that infuriated America's Arab allies but gave the president bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump benefited from a long record of siding with the Israeli state dating back to his initial presidency, encompassing his decision to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The American leader, actually, is better regarded among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a situation that provided him with unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Combine Trump's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an deal.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, on the other hand, the president has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has swung between efforts to strong-arm Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump has threatened to enact new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the global economy and intensify the conflict.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the nation - only to then back off in the face of worried European partners who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the whole area.

Trump loves to tout his ability to sit down and negotiate deals, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to move the war any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be exploiting Trump's desire for a deal – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of influencing him.

During the summer, Russia's leader consented to a summit in Alaska at the time when it seemed probable that the president would sign off on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader called the US president who then promoted the potential meeting in Hungary.

The next day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the executive residence, but left empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

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

"As you are aware, I've been played throughout my career by the best of them, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

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

"As soon as the issue of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in negotiations," he stated.

So, in a short period, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a meeting in Hungary with Putin and privately pressuring Zelensky to surrender the entire Donbas region – including land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a truce along current battle lines – something Russia has refused to accept.

During his election campaign previously, Trump promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the war is proving harder than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a framework for peace when neither side desires, or can afford to, give up the fight.