🔗 Share this article

Reports of an upcoming US-Russia presidential meeting have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Only a few days after Donald Trump said he planned to confer with Russia's leader Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

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

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The on-again, off-again meeting is just the latest development in the president's efforts to mediate an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in the North African country last week to commemorate that truce deal, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Middle East success achievable for the negotiation team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Less Leverage

Per Witkoff, the key to unlocking a agreement was the Israeli government's move to attack Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a action that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but provided Trump leverage to compel Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

The US president benefited from a long record of supporting Israel dating back to his first term, including his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, actually, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that gave him 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 abundant negotiating strength to secure an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, the president has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to pressure the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and further escalate the conflict.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the nation - only to then retreat in the face of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

The president loves to tout his ability to sit down and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to move the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

Putin may actually be exploiting Trump's desire for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

During the summer, Putin consented to a summit in Alaska just as it seemed probable that Trump would approve on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was subsequently delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader called Trump who then touted the possible summit in Budapest.

The next day, the president hosted Zelensky at the White House, but departed empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

The US leader maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

"You know, I have been manipulated throughout my career by the best of them, and I emerged successfully," he said.

However the Ukrainian leader subsequently commented on the timeline of developments.

"As soon as the issue of advanced weaponry became a little further away for us – for our nation – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in negotiations," he said.

So, in a short period, Trump has shifted from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to surrender the entire Donbas region – including territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has finally settled on advocating a truce along current battle lines – something Russia has refused to accept.

During his election campaign last year, the candidate promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the hostilities 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 is able to, cease hostilities.