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Accounts of an upcoming American-Russian leadership summit have been overstated, apparently.

Only a few days after Donald Trump said he intended to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A initial get-together by the two nations' top diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I'll see what happens."

• Trump says he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Letdown in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky departs White House empty-handed

The on-again, off-again summit is another twist in the president's attempts to broker an conclusion to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

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

"We have to get Russia done," he declared.

However, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for nearing four years.

Less Leverage

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was Israel's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that infuriated America's Arab allies but provided the president bargaining power to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a history of supporting Israel since his first term, encompassing his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to change US policy on the legality of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that provided him with unique influence 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 negotiating strength to secure an deal.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, the president has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between efforts to pressure Putin 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 provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and intensify the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with the country and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - only to then back off in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

Trump often boasts about his ability to sit down and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to move the hostilities any closer to a resolution.

The Russian president may actually be exploiting the US leader's wish for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a method of influencing him.

In July, Russia's leader agreed to a summit in the US state just as it appeared likely that the president would approve on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously shipping long-range missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then promoted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The next day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but departed without agreements after a allegedly strained discussion.

The US leader insisted that he was not being manipulated by the Russian president.

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

But the president of Ukraine subsequently made note of 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 quickly became less interested in negotiations," 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 privately urging Zelensky to surrender all of Donbas – even territory Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has finally settled on advocating a truce along present frontlines – something Russia has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that pledge, saying that concluding the war is turning out harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his authority – and the challenge of establishing a framework for peace when both parties wants, or is able to, give up the fight.