🔗 Share this article

Reports of an impending American-Russian presidential summit have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.

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 two nations' top diplomats has been cancelled, as well.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," President Trump told the press at the White House on a recent weekday. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he did not want a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for negotiations with Putin shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky departs Washington without results

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest twist in the president's attempts to broker an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a truce and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza.

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

"It is essential to get the Russian situation resolved," he said.

Nonetheless, the circumstances that aligned to make a Middle East success possible for the negotiation team may be challenging to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost four years.

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was Israel's move to strike Hamas negotiators 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 reaching an agreement.

Trump gained from a long record of supporting Israel since his initial presidency, including his choice to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to change US policy on the legality of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

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

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

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less influence. In recent months, he has vacillated between attempts to pressure Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.

Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that such actions could disrupt the global economy and intensify the war.

At the same time, the president has publicly berated Ukraine's president, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and pausing weapon deliveries to the nation - then to retreat in the face of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the entire region.

Trump loves to tout his skill to sit down and hammer out agreements, but his face-to-face meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders haven't seemed to move the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be exploiting Trump's desire for a deal – and faith in direct negotiations - as a method of manipulating him.

In July, Russia's leader consented to a high-level meeting in the US state just as it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the Russian leader called Trump who then promoted the possible meeting in Budapest.

The following day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

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

"You know, I've been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well," he said.

But the president of Ukraine 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 – the Russian side quickly became less interested in negotiations," he stated.

So, in a matter of days, the president has bounced from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately urging the Ukrainian president to cede all of Donbas – including territory Russia has been failed to capture.

He has finally settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – something Russia has rejected.

During his election campaign previously, Trump promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has subsequently discarded that pledge, saying that concluding the hostilities is proving more difficult than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the challenge of establishing a peace plan when neither side desires, or is able to, give up the fight.