🔗 Share this article

Accounts of an impending US-Russia leadership summit have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.

Only a few days after Donald Trump said he intended to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

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

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told the press at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves White House without results

The frequently changing meeting is just the latest twist in the president's attempts to broker an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to celebrate that truce deal, Trump addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

However, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for the negotiation team may be challenging to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president benefited from a history of siding with the Israeli state since his first term, encompassing his choice to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.

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

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm 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 supply Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with the country and suspending arms shipments to the nation - then to retreat in the wake of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

The president often boasts about his skill to sit down and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the hostilities any closer to a resolution.

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

In July, Putin agreed to a summit in the US state just as it appeared likely that the president would approve on congressional sanctions package backed by GOP senators. That legislation was subsequently delayed.

Recently, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the Russian leader phoned the US president who then promoted the possible meeting in Budapest.

The following day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left without agreements after a allegedly tense meeting.

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

"You know, I've been played all my life by skilled operators, and I came out successfully," he said.

However the president of Ukraine later commented on the timeline of developments.

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in negotiations," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and privately pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – even territory Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has finally decided on calling for a ceasefire along current battle lines – a proposal Russia has rejected.

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, admitting that ending the hostilities 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 framework for peace when neither side desires, or can afford to, give up the fight.