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

Only a few days after President Trump said he planned to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary get-together by the both countries' top diplomats has been called off, too.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told reporters at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump states he did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for Putin talks shelved
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as President Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is another development in the president's attempts to broker an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that truce deal, Trump turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for the negotiation team may be difficult to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Less Leverage

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered US partners in the Arab world but gave the president bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president gained from a history of siding with the Israeli state dating back to his first term, encompassing his choice to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

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

Combine the president's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to secure an deal.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, the president has significantly reduced leverage. In recent months, he has vacillated between efforts to pressure Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to enact new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and intensify the conflict.

At the same time, the president has publicly berated Ukraine's president, halting briefly information exchange with the country and pausing weapon deliveries to the nation - only to then retreat in the wake of worried European partners who caution a defeat of Ukraine could destabilise the entire region.

Trump often boasts about his ability to meet and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the war any nearer a resolution.

Putin may actually be exploiting Trump's desire for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a method of influencing him.

In July, Putin consented to a summit in Alaska just as it seemed probable that the president would approve on legislative penalties supported by Senate Republicans. That legislation was subsequently put on hold.

Recently, as reports spread that the White House was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Budapest.

The next day, the president hosted Zelensky at the executive residence, but departed without agreements after a allegedly tense meeting.

The US leader insisted that he was not being played by the Russian president.

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

But the Ukrainian leader later 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 engaged in diplomacy," he stated.

Thus, in a short period, Trump has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to surrender the entire Donbas region – including land Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has finally decided on advocating a truce along current battle lines – a proposal the Russian government has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate vowed that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has subsequently abandoned that pledge, saying that concluding 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 finding a peace plan when both parties wants, or is able to, cease hostilities.