🔗 Share this article

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

Just days after President Trump said he intended to meet Russian President Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary meeting by the two nations' leading diplomats has been cancelled, too.

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

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves Washington empty-handed

The frequently changing summit is just the latest development in Trump's attempts to mediate an conclusion to hostilities in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

During a speech in Egypt recently to commemorate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

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

However, the conditions that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for the negotiation team may be difficult to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing several years.

Reduced Influence

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided Trump bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump gained from a history of siding with Israel since his first term, including his decision to move the US embassy to the contested city, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.

Combine the president's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to force an deal.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, Trump has significantly reduced leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has warned to enact new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could harm the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the country - then to retreat in the face of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.

Trump often boasts about his ability to meet and negotiate deals, but his personal discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to advance the war any closer to a peaceful end.

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

During the summer, Russia's leader consented to a high-level meeting in Alaska at the time when it appeared likely that the president would approve on congressional sanctions package backed by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating shipping long-range missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then promoted the potential summit in Budapest.

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

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

"You know, I've been played throughout my career by skilled operators, and I came out really well," he remarked.

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

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for our nation – Russia quickly became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a short period, Trump has bounced from considering the idea of sending missiles to Ukraine to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Putin and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to cede all of Donbas – including territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately decided on calling for a ceasefire along present frontlines – a proposal the Russian government has refused to accept.

During his election campaign previously, the candidate vowed that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that pledge, saying that concluding the war is proving more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the challenge of finding a framework for peace when neither side wants, or is able to, give up the fight.