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Accounts of an impending US-Russia presidential summit have been overstated, apparently.

Just days after Donald Trump announced he planned to meet Russia's leader Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary meeting by the both countries' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The frequently changing meeting is another twist in Trump's attempts to mediate an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a truce and hostage release deal in Gaza.

During a speech in Egypt recently to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the conditions that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for nearing several years.

Less Leverage

Per Witkoff, the key to achieving a agreement was Israel's move to strike Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a action that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but gave Trump leverage to compel Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president benefited from a long record of supporting Israel since his first term, including his choice to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than their prime minister – a situation that provided him with special sway over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, Trump 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.

Trump has threatened to enact new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

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

Trump often boasts about his ability to sit down and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to move the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

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

During the summer, Russia's leader consented to a summit in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by GOP senators. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the president of Russia called Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Hungary.

The next day, Trump welcomed Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

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

"As you are aware, I've been played throughout my career by skilled operators, and I emerged really well," he said.

However the Ukrainian leader subsequently made note of the timeline of developments.

"As soon as the issue of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for us – for our nation – Russia almost automatically became less engaged in negotiations," he stated.

Thus, in a short period, the president has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Putin and privately pressuring the Ukrainian president to cede the entire Donbas region – even land Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, the candidate promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has since discarded that pledge, saying that concluding the war is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his authority – and the difficulty of finding a framework for peace when both parties wants, or can afford to, cease hostilities.