🔗 Share this article

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

Just days after Donald Trump announced he planned to confer with Russian President Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been suspended indefinitely.

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump told reporters at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I will observe what happens."

• Trump states he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves Washington without results

The frequently changing meeting is another development in Trump's attempts to mediate an conclusion to hostilities in Ukraine – a subject of increased attention for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

During a speech in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed Steve Witkoff, with a new request.

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

However, the conditions that aligned to make a Middle East success possible for the negotiation team may be difficult to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been raging for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

Per the lead negotiator, the key to unlocking a agreement was the Israeli government's decision to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but gave the president leverage to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a long record of supporting the Israeli state dating back to his initial presidency, including his decision to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the legality of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The American leader, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.

Add in Trump's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to force an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, Trump has much less leverage. In recent months, he has swung between attempts to pressure the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide Ukraine with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could harm the global economy and intensify the war.

Meanwhile, the president has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the country - only to then back off in the wake of worried European partners who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

Trump often boasts about his skill to meet and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to advance the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

Putin may actually be using the US leader's wish for a settlement – and faith in direct negotiations - as a method of influencing him.

In July, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska at the time when it appeared likely that the president would sign off on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

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

The next day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly strained discussion.

The US leader insisted that he was not being played by the Russian president.

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

However the president of Ukraine subsequently commented on the sequence of events.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less engaged in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a short period, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to Ukraine to planning a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and confidentially urging the Ukrainian president to cede the entire Donbas region – including land Russia has been failed to capture.

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

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate vowed that he could end the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since discarded that pledge, saying that ending the war is turning out more difficult than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when both parties desires, or can afford to, give up the fight.