Reports of an impending US-Russia presidential summit have been overstated, it seems.
Just days after Donald Trump said he planned to meet Russian President Putin in the Hungarian capital - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.
A preliminary get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been called off, too.
"I don't want to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump informed reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I aim to avoid a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."
The on-again, off-again meeting is another twist in the president's attempts to mediate an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a truce and prisoner exchange agreement in the Palestinian territory.
During a speech in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump addressed Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.
"We have to get Russia done," he said.
Nonetheless, the conditions that converged to make a Middle East success achievable for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing several years.
Per the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was Israel's decision to strike Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but provided the president leverage to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.
The US president benefited from a history of supporting Israel dating back to his first term, including his choice to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to alter America's position on the legality of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, more recently, his backing for Israeli defense operations against the Islamic Republic.
The American leader, in fact, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that gave him special sway over the nation's head.
Add in Trump's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the area, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to force an deal.
In the Ukraine war, by contrast, the president has significantly reduced influence. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to pressure Putin and then the Ukrainian leader, all with minimal visible progress.
Trump has threatened to enact additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also acknowledged that such actions could harm the world's financial stability and intensify the conflict.
At the same time, the US leader has criticized openly Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the country - then to retreat in the wake of worried European partners who warn a defeat of Ukraine could destabilise the entire region.
The president often boasts about his skill to sit down and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the hostilities any nearer a resolution.
The Russian president may actually be using Trump's desire for a settlement – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.
In July, Russia's leader agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it seemed probable that the president would approve on legislative penalties backed by GOP senators. That legislation was subsequently delayed.
Last week, as news emerged that the US administration was considering seriously shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Kyiv, the Russian leader phoned Trump who then promoted the potential summit in Hungary.
The following day, Trump hosted Ukraine's leader at the executive residence, but departed empty-handed after a reportedly tense meeting.
Trump maintained that he was not being manipulated by the Russian president.
"As you are aware, I have been manipulated throughout my career by skilled operators, and I came out really well," he remarked.
But the president of Ukraine subsequently made note of the sequence of events.
"Once the matter of advanced weaponry became a little further away for us – for our nation – the Russian side almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.
Thus, in a short period, the president has bounced 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 the Ukrainian president to cede the entire Donbas region – even land Russian forces has been failed to capture.
He has ultimately decided on advocating a ceasefire along present frontlines – something the Russian government has rejected.
During his election campaign last year, the candidate promised that he could resolve the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that commitment, admitting that ending the war is turning out harder than he anticipated.
It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the difficulty of establishing a peace plan when neither side wants, or is able to, give up the fight.
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