🔗 Share this article

Accounts of an impending American-Russian presidential summit have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Just days after President Trump said he planned to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

A preliminary meeting by the both countries' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump states he did not want a 'unproductive session' after plan for Putin talks shelved
• Disappointment in Ukraine's capital as Zelensky leaves White House without results

The frequently changing summit is just the latest twist in Trump's attempts to mediate an end to war in Ukraine – a subject of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

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

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

Nonetheless, the circumstances that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough achievable for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost several years.

Reduced Influence

According to Witkoff, the crucial element to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided Trump leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump gained from a long record of siding with the Israeli state since his first term, including his decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, to change America's position on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

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

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to key Arab players in the area, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to force an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less leverage. In recent months, he has vacillated between efforts to pressure the Russian president and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has threatened to impose additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to supply the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the world's financial stability and further escalate the conflict.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the country - only to then back off in the face of concerned European allies who caution a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the whole area.

Trump often boasts about his skill to meet and negotiate deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to move the war any closer to a peaceful end.

The Russian president may in fact be using the US leader's wish for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a method of influencing him.

In July, Putin agreed to a summit in the US state just as it seemed probable that the president would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia called Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Budapest.

The following day, the president hosted Ukraine's leader at the White House, but left without agreements after a allegedly strained discussion.

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

"You know, I've been played all my life by skilled operators, and I came out really well," he said.

But the Ukrainian leader subsequently made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the issue of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – the Russian side almost automatically became less engaged in negotiations," he stated.

Thus, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede the entire Donbas region – including territory Russia has been failed to capture.

He has ultimately decided on calling for a truce along present frontlines – something Russia has rejected.

During his election campaign last year, Trump vowed that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has subsequently abandoned that pledge, saying that concluding the war is proving more difficult than he expected.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the challenge of finding a framework for peace when neither side desires, or is able to, cease hostilities.