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Accounts of an upcoming US-Russia presidential meeting have been overstated, it seems.

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

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' top diplomats has been cancelled, as well.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed reporters at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

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

The on-again, off-again meeting is another twist in Trump's efforts to broker an conclusion to war in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in the North African country last week to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

However, the circumstances that converged to make a Middle East success achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing four years.

Less Leverage

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's decision to strike representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but gave Trump bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a long record of siding with the Israeli state dating back to his first term, including his choice to move the American embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is more popular among the Israeli public than their prime minister – a position that gave him unique influence over the nation's head.

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, Trump has much less leverage. Over the past nine 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 additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - only to then back off in the wake of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

Trump loves to tout his skill to sit down and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the war any closer to a resolution.

The Russian president may in fact be exploiting the US leader's wish for a settlement – and faith in direct negotiations - as a method of manipulating him.

During the summer, Russia's leader agreed to a summit in the US state just as it seemed probable that the president would sign off on legislative penalties supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the Russian leader called Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Budapest.

The next day, Trump welcomed Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly tense meeting.

Trump insisted that he was not being played by Putin.

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

However the president of Ukraine later made note of the timeline of developments.

"Once the matter of advanced weaponry became a little further away for us – for our nation – the Russian side almost automatically became less engaged in diplomacy," he stated.

So, in a matter of days, Trump has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to Ukraine to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – including territory Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has finally decided on advocating a ceasefire along present frontlines – something Russia has rejected.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump vowed that he could end the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since abandoned that commitment, saying that ending the war is proving harder than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his authority – and the difficulty of finding a peace plan when both parties desires, or is able to, give up the fight.