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Reports of an impending American-Russian leadership meeting have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Just days after President Trump said he planned to confer with 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 both countries' top diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump informed the press at the White House on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I will observe what transpires."

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The frequently changing meeting is just the latest development in the president's attempts to mediate an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a truce and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to commemorate that truce deal, the president turned to Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

"It is essential to get Russia done," he declared.

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Middle East success achievable for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for nearing four years.

Less Leverage

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to achieving a deal was Israel's move to attack Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided Trump leverage to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump benefited from a history of supporting the Israeli state since his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The American leader, in fact, is more popular among Israelis than their prime minister – a position that provided him with special sway over the nation's head.

Combine the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, the president has much less leverage. In recent months, he has swung between efforts to strong-arm the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the country - then to retreat in the wake of worried European partners who warn a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president often boasts about his ability to meet and hammer out agreements, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to move the hostilities any nearer a resolution.

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

In July, Russia's leader consented to a summit in the US state just as it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the Russian leader called Trump who then promoted the potential meeting in Hungary.

The following day, the president welcomed Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but departed empty-handed after a allegedly strained discussion.

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

"As you are aware, I have been manipulated all my life by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he said.

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

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – the Russian side quickly became less interested in negotiations," he said.

So, in a matter of days, the president has bounced from considering the idea of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede the entire Donbas region – even land Russia has been failed to capture.

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

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the war is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his authority – and the difficulty of finding a peace plan when neither side wants, or can afford to, cease hostilities.