🔗 Share this article

Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia leadership meeting have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.

Only a few days after President Trump said he intended to meet Russia's leader Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary get-together by the both countries' top diplomats has been called off, as well.

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

• Trump states he wished to avoid a 'unproductive session' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves White House empty-handed

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest twist in Trump's efforts to mediate an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the US president after he orchestrated a ceasefire and prisoner exchange 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 Russia done," he declared.

Nonetheless, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to achieving a deal was Israel's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but gave Trump leverage to compel Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump benefited from a history of supporting Israel since his initial presidency, including his choice to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than their prime minister – a position that provided him with 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 diplomatic muscle to force an deal.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated 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 supply the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and intensify the conflict.

At the same time, the president has publicly berated Ukraine's president, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with the country and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - only to then back off in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the entire region.

The president often boasts about his skill to sit down and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have not appeared to move the hostilities any nearer a peaceful end.

Putin may in fact be exploiting the US leader's wish for a deal – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

During the summer, Putin consented to a high-level meeting in the US state just as it appeared likely that the president would sign off on legislative penalties supported by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as reports spread that the White House was considering seriously sending Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the president of Russia called the US president who then promoted the possible summit in Hungary.

The next day, the president welcomed Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but departed without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

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

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

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

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for our nation – Russia quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he stated.

So, in a short period, Trump has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately pressuring the Ukrainian president to cede the entire Donbas region – including territory Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has finally decided on calling for a truce along current battle lines – something Russia has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the hostilities is turning out more difficult than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his authority – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when both parties wants, or can afford to, give up the fight.