🔗 Share this article

Reports of an upcoming American-Russian leadership summit have been overstated, it seems.

Just days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russian President Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A initial meeting by the both countries' top diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed the press at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump states he did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky departs Washington empty-handed

The on-again, off-again meeting is another twist in the president's efforts to broker an conclusion to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

During a speech in the North African country recently to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, the president turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"It is essential to get Russia resolved," he said.

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

Reduced Influence

Per the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a deal was the Israeli government's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but provided the president leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a long record of supporting Israel since his initial presidency, encompassing his decision to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, in fact, is more popular among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a position that gave him special sway over the nation's head.

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

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less leverage. In recent months, he has swung between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to enact additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with the country and pausing arms shipments to the nation - only to then retreat in the face of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

The president loves to tout his skill 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 actually be using the US leader's wish for a deal – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

During the summer, Russia's leader consented to a summit in Alaska just as it appeared likely that Trump would approve on congressional sanctions package backed by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then promoted the potential meeting in Hungary.

The next day, the president hosted Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left empty-handed after a allegedly strained discussion.

The US leader insisted that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

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

But the Ukrainian leader subsequently commented on the timeline of developments.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less engaged in negotiations," he stated.

Thus, in a short period, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a meeting in Hungary with Putin and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – even territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

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

On the campaign trail previously, Trump vowed that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the war is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of finding a peace plan when both parties wants, or is able to, cease hostilities.