🔗 Share this article

Reports of an upcoming American-Russian presidential meeting have been overstated, apparently.

Just days after President Trump said he intended to meet Russian President Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been suspended indefinitely.

A initial meeting by the two nations' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed the press at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after arrangement for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky leaves White House without results

The frequently changing summit is just the latest development in the president's attempts to mediate an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a truce and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory.

During a speech in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances 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 raging for nearing several years.

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's move to strike representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a action that angered America's Arab allies but provided the president bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump benefited from a long record of siding with Israel since his initial presidency, including his choice to move the US embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the West Bank and, in recent times, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.

The US president, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that provided him with unique influence over the nation's head.

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, the president has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between efforts to pressure the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has threatened to impose additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could harm the global economy and further escalate the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has criticized openly Zelensky, halting briefly information exchange with Ukraine and suspending weapon deliveries to the country - only to then back off in the face of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president loves to tout his ability to meet and negotiate deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to move the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.

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

In July, Putin consented to a high-level meeting in the US state at the time when it seemed probable that the president would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards delayed.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating sending long-range missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the president of Russia phoned Trump who then touted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The next day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the White House, but departed without agreements after a reportedly strained discussion.

The US leader maintained that he was not being manipulated by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I've been played throughout my career by skilled operators, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

But the Ukrainian leader later commented on the timeline of developments.

"As soon as the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he stated.

Thus, in a short period, the president has shifted from considering the idea of sending missiles to the Eastern European country to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – even territory Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a ceasefire along current battle lines – a proposal Russia has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail last year, the candidate promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that commitment, saying that concluding the war is proving more difficult than he anticipated.

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