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

Just days after President Trump said he planned 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 initial meeting by the both countries' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump informed reporters at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs White House without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest development in Trump's attempts to broker an end to war in Ukraine – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to commemorate that truce deal, the president addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for the negotiation team may be challenging to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for nearing four years.

Less Leverage

Per the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was Israel's move to attack representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that infuriated America's Arab allies but gave the president bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president benefited from a long record of siding with the Israeli state since his first term, including his choice to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the legality of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his support for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a situation that gave him unique influence over the nation's head.

Combine Trump's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, the president has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to pressure the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has threatened to impose additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to supply the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the global economy and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the nation - only to then retreat in the wake of worried European partners who warn a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the whole area.

The president loves to tout his skill to sit down and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to move the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

Putin may in fact be exploiting the US leader's wish for a settlement – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of influencing him.

During the summer, Putin agreed to a summit in the US state just as it seemed probable that Trump would approve on congressional sanctions package supported by GOP senators. That legislation was subsequently delayed.

Recently, as reports spread that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then promoted the potential summit in Hungary.

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

Trump insisted that he was not being manipulated by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I've been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he said.

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

"Once the issue of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he stated.

So, in a short period, the president has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to cede all of Donbas – including territory Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has finally decided on calling for a ceasefire along current battle lines – something Russia has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate vowed that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has since discarded that commitment, saying 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 desires, or can afford to, give up the fight.