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

Just days after Donald Trump announced he planned to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

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

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," President Trump told the press at the White House on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump states he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The on-again, off-again meeting is another twist in the president's attempts to broker an conclusion to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

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

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a agreement was Israel's decision to strike representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but provided Trump bargaining power to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president benefited from a long record of supporting Israel dating back to his initial presidency, encompassing his decision to move the US embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing 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 nation's head.

Add in the president's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the area, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to force an deal.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has significantly reduced influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to pressure the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, 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 such actions could disrupt the global economy and intensify the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the country - only to then retreat in the face of concerned European allies who warn a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president loves to tout his skill to meet and hammer out agreements, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to advance the hostilities any nearer a resolution.

The Russian president may actually be exploiting the US leader's wish for a deal – and belief in direct negotiations - as a means of influencing him.

During the summer, Putin agreed to a summit in the US state at the time when it seemed probable that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the president of Russia called the US president who then promoted the possible summit in Hungary.

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

The US leader maintained that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

"You know, I've been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he remarked.

However the Ukrainian leader later made note of the sequence of events.

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

Thus, in a short period, the president has shifted from considering the idea of sending missiles to Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to cede all of Donbas – even territory Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has finally decided on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – something the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, the candidate promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has subsequently abandoned that pledge, admitting that concluding the hostilities is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a framework for peace when both parties desires, or can afford to, cease hostilities.