Reports of an upcoming American-Russian leadership meeting have been greatly exaggerated, apparently.
Just days after Donald Trump announced he planned to confer with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.
A initial get-together by the both countries' top diplomats has been cancelled, as well.
"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," President Trump told the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a pointless effort, so I will observe what happens."
The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest twist in the president's efforts to broker an end to hostilities in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
During a speech in Egypt recently to celebrate that truce deal, the president addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.
"We have to get Russia resolved," he said.
However, the conditions 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 raging for almost several years.
According to the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a agreement was the Israeli government's decision to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated America's Arab allies but provided the president leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.
The US president benefited from a long record of supporting Israel dating back to his first term, including his decision to move the US embassy to the contested city, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.
The US president, actually, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a situation that gave him special sway over the nation's head.
Add in the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the area, and he had a abundant negotiating strength to force an deal.
Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, by contrast, the president has much less influence. In recent months, he has swung between attempts to pressure Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.
Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply the Ukrainian forces with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that doing so could disrupt the global economy and intensify the conflict.
At the same time, the president has publicly berated Zelensky, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with the country and suspending arms shipments to the country - then to retreat in the wake of concerned European allies who caution a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the whole area.
The president often boasts about his skill to sit down 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.
The Russian president may in fact be exploiting the US leader's wish for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means 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 sign off on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That bill was afterwards delayed.
Last week, as reports spread that the US administration was seriously contemplating sending long-range missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the president of Russia phoned the US president who then promoted the potential meeting in Hungary.
The next day, Trump welcomed Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but left without agreements after a reportedly tense meeting.
Trump insisted that he was not being played by the Russian president.
"You know, I've been played all my life by skilled operators, and I came out successfully," he remarked.
However the president of Ukraine subsequently made note of the sequence of events.
"Once the issue of advanced weaponry became a less accessible for Ukraine – for our nation – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he stated.
Thus, in a short period, the president has bounced from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially urging Zelensky to surrender all of Donbas – even land Russia has been failed to capture.
He has ultimately settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – a proposal the Russian government has rejected.
During his election campaign previously, Trump promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that pledge, saying that concluding the hostilities is proving more difficult than he expected.
It has been a rare acknowledgement of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when neither side desires, or is able to, give up the fight.
Lena Hoffmann is a seasoned journalist with a passion for uncovering stories that matter, specializing in German current affairs and digital media trends.
