🔗 Share this article

Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia leadership summit have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after Donald Trump announced he intended to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

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

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

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

The frequently changing summit is another development in the president's attempts to broker an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the US president after he orchestrated a truce and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt recently to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

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

However, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for the negotiation team may be challenging to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for nearing several years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a agreement was Israel's move to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president gained from a history of supporting the Israeli state dating back to his initial presidency, including his decision to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to change America's position 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 better regarded among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a position that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.

Combine Trump's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to secure an agreement.

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

Trump has threatened to enact additional penalties on Russian energy exports 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 intensify the war.

At the same time, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the nation - then to back off in the face of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the entire region.

The president often boasts about his skill to sit down and negotiate agreements, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

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

During the summer, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting in the US state just as it appeared likely that the president would approve on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Last week, as reports spread that the White House was seriously contemplating sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned the US president who then touted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The following day, the president hosted Zelensky at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly tense meeting.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

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

But the Ukrainian leader later made note of the timeline of developments.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from considering the idea of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially urging Zelensky to surrender the entire Donbas region – including territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a truce along current battle lines – something Russia has rejected.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that commitment, admitting that ending the war is turning out more difficult than he expected.

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