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Accounts of an impending American-Russian presidential summit have been overstated, apparently.

Just days after President Trump said he intended to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

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

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump told reporters at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I will observe what happens."

• Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky departs White House empty-handed

The on-again, off-again summit is another development in Trump's attempts to broker an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

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

However, the conditions that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's decision to strike Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that infuriated America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a long record of siding with Israel since his first term, including his decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the legality of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him special sway over the nation's head.

Add in Trump's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, the president has significantly reduced leverage. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending weapon deliveries to the nation - then to retreat in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the entire region.

Trump loves to tout his skill to sit down and negotiate agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may actually be exploiting Trump's desire for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a method of influencing him.

In July, Russia's leader consented to a high-level meeting in Alaska at the time when it seemed probable that the president would sign off on legislative penalties supported by GOP senators. That bill was subsequently delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously shipping long-range missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then touted the possible meeting in Hungary.

The following day, Trump hosted Zelensky at the executive residence, but left without agreements after a reportedly tense meeting.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

"You know, I've been played throughout my career by skilled operators, and I came out successfully," he said.

However the president of Ukraine subsequently commented on the sequence of events.

"As soon as the issue of advanced weaponry became a little further away for us – for our nation – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a short period, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to cede the entire Donbas region – even territory Russia has been unable to conquer.

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

On the campaign trail previously, Trump promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that commitment, admitting that concluding the hostilities is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the challenge of finding a peace plan when both parties wants, or can afford to, give up the fight.