🔗 Share this article

Reports of an impending American-Russian leadership summit have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary meeting by the both countries' top diplomats has been cancelled, as well.

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

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The frequently changing summit is another development in Trump's efforts to broker an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

During a speech in Egypt recently to celebrate that truce deal, the president turned to his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for nearing several years.

Less Leverage

Per the lead negotiator, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was Israel's move to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated America's Arab allies but gave the president bargaining power to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president benefited from a long record of siding with the Israeli state since his initial presidency, encompassing his choice to move the US embassy to the contested city, to alter America's position on the legality of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among the Israeli public than Netanyahu – 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 area, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to force an deal.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, Trump has significantly reduced influence. Over the past nine months, he has swung between efforts to strong-arm the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned 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 war.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - only to then back off in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could destabilise the entire region.

Trump loves to tout his skill to meet and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to advance the war any closer to a resolution.

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

During the summer, Putin agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the president of Russia called the US president who then touted the potential summit in Hungary.

The next day, the president hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left without agreements after a reportedly tense meeting.

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

"You know, I've been played throughout my career by skilled operators, and I came out successfully," he said.

However the Ukrainian leader subsequently made note of the sequence of events.

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

Thus, in a short period, Trump has bounced from considering the idea of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Putin and privately urging the Ukrainian president to cede all of Donbas – even territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a ceasefire along current battle lines – something the Russian government has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate promised that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that ending the war is turning out harder than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his authority – and the challenge of establishing a peace plan when neither side desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.