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Reports of an impending US-Russia presidential meeting have been overstated, apparently.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to confer with Russia's leader Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A initial meeting by the both countries' leading diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed the press at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky departs White House without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest twist in the president's attempts to mediate an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a topic of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza.

While making remarks in the North African country recently to celebrate that truce deal, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"We have to get the Russian situation resolved," he said.

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

Reduced Influence

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

Trump gained from a long record of supporting the Israeli state since his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to move the American embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

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

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

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, Trump has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between efforts to pressure Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has threatened to enact additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the war.

At the same time, the president has publicly berated Zelensky, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the nation - then to retreat in the wake of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the entire region.

Trump loves to tout his skill to sit down and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the war any nearer a resolution.

The Russian president may in fact be exploiting Trump's desire for a settlement – and faith in direct negotiations - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting 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 put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the US administration was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia called the US president who then promoted the potential summit in Hungary.

The next day, the president welcomed Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

Trump insisted that he was not being manipulated by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I have been manipulated all my life by skilled operators, and I came out really well," he remarked.

But the president of Ukraine later commented on the sequence of events.

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for our nation – the Russian side quickly became less engaged in negotiations," he said.

So, in a short period, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Putin and privately urging the Ukrainian president to surrender 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 the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that commitment, saying that ending the war is proving more difficult than he anticipated.

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