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Reports of an upcoming American-Russian presidential summit have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after Donald Trump announced he intended to meet Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been suspended indefinitely.

A initial meeting by the two nations' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump informed reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky departs White House without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is another twist in Trump's attempts to mediate an end to war in Ukraine – a subject of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release deal in Gaza.

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

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

Nonetheless, the conditions that converged to make a Middle East success possible for the negotiation team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for almost four years.

Less Leverage

According to the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a long record of supporting the Israeli state since his first term, including his decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

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

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

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to enact additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could disrupt the world's financial stability and intensify the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with the country and pausing weapon deliveries to the country - only to then back off in the face of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

The president often boasts about his skill to meet and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the hostilities any closer to a resolution.

Putin may in fact be using Trump's desire for a deal – and belief in direct negotiations - as a method of manipulating him.

In July, Russia's leader consented to a summit in Alaska just as it seemed probable that Trump would approve on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader called the US president who then touted the possible summit in Budapest.

The following day, the president hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but departed without agreements 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 skilled operators, and I emerged successfully," he remarked.

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

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

So, in a short period, the president has shifted from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and privately pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender the entire Donbas region – even land Russia has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – something Russia has rejected.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has since discarded that pledge, saying that ending the war is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his authority – and the difficulty of finding a framework for peace when both parties wants, or is able to, cease hostilities.