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

Only a few days after President Trump said he intended to confer with Russia's leader Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

A initial get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump told the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump states he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky departs White House without results

The frequently changing meeting is just the latest twist in the president's efforts to broker an conclusion to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release agreement in the Palestinian territory.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to commemorate that truce deal, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

"It is essential to get the Russian situation resolved," he declared.

However, the circumstances 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 raging for nearing four years.

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the key to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to pressure Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president benefited from a history of siding with the Israeli state since his initial presidency, including his decision to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, actually, is more popular among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – a situation that provided him with special sway over the nation's head.

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to secure an deal.

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

Trump has threatened to enact additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could disrupt the global economy and intensify the war.

Meanwhile, the president has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off information exchange with the country and pausing weapon deliveries to the country - then to retreat in the wake of concerned European allies who warn a defeat of Ukraine could destabilise the whole area.

The president loves to tout his ability to sit down and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to move the war any closer to a resolution.

Putin may in fact be using Trump's desire for a deal – and belief in direct negotiations - as a means of influencing him.

In July, Putin consented to a high-level meeting in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that Trump would approve on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Last week, as reports spread that the US administration was considering seriously sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then touted the potential summit in Hungary.

The following day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the White House, but departed empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

Trump insisted that he was not being played by Putin.

"You know, I have been manipulated all my life by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he remarked.

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

"As soon as the issue of long-range mobility became a less accessible for us – for our nation – the Russian side quickly became less engaged in negotiations," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, the president has bounced from considering the idea of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – including land Russia has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a truce along present frontlines – a proposal the Russian government has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump vowed that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has subsequently abandoned that pledge, admitting that ending the war is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of finding a peace plan when both parties wants, or can afford to, cease hostilities.