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Accounts of an impending American-Russian presidential meeting have been overstated, it seems.

Just days after President Trump said he intended to meet Russia's leader Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been suspended indefinitely.

A preliminary get-together by the both countries' leading diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The frequently changing meeting is just the latest twist in Trump's efforts to broker an conclusion to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to commemorate that truce deal, Trump turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"It is essential to get the Russian situation done," he said.

However, the circumstances that converged to make a Middle East success possible for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for nearing four years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's decision to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but provided Trump leverage to compel Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a history of siding with the Israeli state since his first term, including his choice to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

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

Combine the president's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the region, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to force an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, Trump has significantly reduced leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between efforts to pressure the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

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

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and pausing weapon deliveries to the nation - then to retreat in the face of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president often boasts about his ability to sit down and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any closer to 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.

In July, Putin agreed to a high-level meeting in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on legislative penalties supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia called Trump who then touted the possible summit in Hungary.

The next day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly strained discussion.

Trump maintained that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

"As you are aware, I've been played throughout my career by skilled operators, and I came out really well," he remarked.

However the president of Ukraine subsequently made note of the timeline of developments.

"As soon as the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for Ukraine – for Ukraine – the Russian side quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and privately urging Zelensky to surrender the entire Donbas region – including land Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

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

During his election campaign previously, the candidate vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that commitment, admitting that ending the hostilities is turning out harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his authority – and the difficulty of establishing a framework for peace when neither side wants, or can afford to, cease hostilities.