🔗 Share this article

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

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

A initial meeting by the both countries' leading diplomats has been cancelled, 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 happens."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The frequently changing summit is just the latest twist in Trump's efforts to mediate an end to war in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a truce and hostage release agreement in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to commemorate that truce deal, Trump turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"It is essential to get Russia resolved," he said.

Nonetheless, the conditions that converged to make a Middle East success achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was the Israeli government's move to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but gave the president bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a long record of siding with the Israeli state since his first term, including his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to change America's position on the legality of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, in fact, is better regarded among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a position that gave him special sway over the nation's head.

Combine 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.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, the president has much less influence. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has warned to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and intensify the conflict.

At the same time, the president has criticized openly Zelensky, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with the country and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - then to retreat in the wake of worried European partners who warn a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the whole area.

Trump often boasts about his ability to meet and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the war 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 influencing him.

In July, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that the president would approve on congressional sanctions package supported by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating sending long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia called Trump who then touted the potential meeting in Hungary.

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

Trump insisted that he was not being manipulated by Putin.

"You know, I've been played throughout my career by the best of them, and I came out really well," he remarked.

But the Ukrainian leader later made note of the sequence of events.

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

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially urging Zelensky to surrender the entire Donbas region – even land Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately settled on advocating a truce along current battle lines – a proposal Russia has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that pledge, admitting that concluding the war is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his authority – and the challenge of establishing a peace plan when both parties desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.