🔗 Share this article

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

Only a few days after Donald Trump announced he planned to meet Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary get-together by the both countries' top diplomats has been called off, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed the press at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I will observe what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after plan for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs White House empty-handed

The frequently changing meeting is just the latest development in the president's attempts to mediate an conclusion to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release agreement 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 new request.

"We have to get the Russian situation done," he declared.

However, the conditions that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for the negotiation team may be challenging to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing several years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the key to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to compel Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president benefited from a history of siding with Israel dating back to his first term, encompassing his decision to relocate the US embassy to the contested city, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that provided him with special sway over the Israeli leader.

Combine the president's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to secure an deal.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, on the other hand, the president has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the global economy and further escalate the war.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, halting briefly information exchange with the country and suspending arms shipments to the nation - only to then retreat in the face of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

Trump loves to tout his ability to meet and hammer out agreements, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the war any closer to a resolution.

Putin may actually be using the US leader's wish for a settlement – and belief in direct negotiations - as a means of manipulating him.

During the summer, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it appeared likely that the president would sign off on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as reports spread that the White House was considering seriously shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia called Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Hungary.

The following day, Trump welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but left without agreements after a reportedly tense meeting.

The US leader maintained that he was not being played by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I've been played throughout my career by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he said.

But the Ukrainian leader subsequently made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the issue of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from considering the idea of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to surrender the entire Donbas region – even land Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has finally settled on advocating a truce along current battle lines – a proposal Russia has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since discarded that commitment, admitting that concluding the war 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 both parties desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.