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Accounts of an upcoming American-Russian presidential summit have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Just days after Donald Trump said he intended to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary meeting by the both countries' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," President Trump told reporters at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump states he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The on-again, off-again summit is another development in Trump's attempts to broker an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in the North African country last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, the president turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost four years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was the Israeli government's decision to attack Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but gave the president leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president gained from a long record of siding with Israel dating back to his first term, including his choice to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, in fact, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, the president has much less influence. In recent months, he has vacillated between efforts to strong-arm the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump 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 such actions could disrupt the world's financial stability and intensify the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - only to then back off in the face of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the whole area.

Trump loves to tout his ability to sit down and hammer out agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the war any closer to a resolution.

The Russian president may in fact be using the US leader's wish for a deal – and faith in direct negotiations - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Putin consented to a summit in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that the president would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by GOP senators. That bill was subsequently delayed.

Recently, as reports spread that the White House was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Hungary.

The next day, the president hosted Zelensky at the executive residence, but departed empty-handed after a reportedly strained discussion.

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

"As you are aware, I have been manipulated throughout my career by the best of them, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

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

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for our nation – Russia almost automatically became less engaged in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a short period, Trump has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to cede all of Donbas – including territory Russia has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – a proposal the Russian government has rejected.

During his election campaign last year, Trump vowed that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has subsequently abandoned that commitment, saying that concluding the hostilities is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the challenge of establishing a peace plan when both parties desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.