🔗 Share this article

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

Only a few days after President Trump announced he intended to confer with Russian President Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the high-level talks has been suspended indefinitely.

A preliminary get-together by the both countries' leading diplomats has been called off, as well.

"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump informed reporters at the White House on a recent weekday. "I don't want a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Trump states he did not want a 'unproductive session' after arrangement for Putin talks postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky departs Washington empty-handed

The frequently changing summit is just the latest development in the president's efforts to mediate an end to hostilities in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he orchestrated a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a fresh directive.

"We have to get Russia resolved," he declared.

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

Reduced Influence

Per Witkoff, the crucial element to unlocking a agreement was the Israeli government's decision to strike Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a move that angered America's Arab allies but gave the president leverage to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.

Trump gained from a long record of supporting the Israeli state dating back to his initial presidency, including his choice to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

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

Add in the president's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations 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 influence. In recent months, he has swung between efforts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with minimal visible progress.

The US leader has warned to enact additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that such actions could harm the global economy and further escalate the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Zelensky, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the nation - only to then back off in the face of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the entire region.

The president often boasts about his ability to sit down and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to move the hostilities any nearer a resolution.

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

During the summer, Russia's leader agreed to a summit in the US state at the time when it appeared likely that Trump would approve on congressional sanctions package supported by Senate Republicans. That bill was afterwards put on hold.

Last week, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then promoted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The next day, Trump welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly tense meeting.

Trump maintained that he was not being played by Putin.

"You know, I've been played throughout my career by the best of them, and I came out successfully," he said.

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

"Once the issue of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he stated.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has shifted from considering the idea of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately pressuring the Ukrainian president to surrender the entire Donbas region – including land Russian forces has been unable to conquer.

He has ultimately settled on calling for a truce along present frontlines – something Russia has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail previously, the candidate promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a very short time. He has since abandoned that pledge, saying that concluding the hostilities is turning out more difficult than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a framework for peace when both parties desires, or can afford to, give up the fight.