Why Donald Trump Secured a Major Step in Gaza But Struggles With Putin Concerning Ukraine

Accounts of an impending US-Russia leadership summit have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Just days after President Trump said he intended 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 meeting by the two nations' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," President Trump told the press at the executive mansion on a recent weekday. "I don't want a pointless effort, so I'll see what transpires."

• Trump states he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for negotiations with Putin postponed
• Letdown in Kyiv as Zelensky departs Washington without results

The frequently changing summit is another development in the president's attempts to broker an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a subject of renewed focus for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza.

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

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

However, the conditions that converged to make a Middle East success possible for Witkoff and his team may be challenging to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for almost four years.

Less Leverage

According to the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a deal was the Israeli government's move to attack representatives of Hamas in the Gulf state. It was a move that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but gave the president bargaining power to pressure Israel's leader Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump benefited from a history of supporting Israel since his first term, encompassing his choice to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem, to change US policy on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that provided him with special sway over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to secure an agreement.

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

Trump has threatened to enact new sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sales and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the global economy and intensify the conflict.

At the same time, the US leader has publicly berated Ukraine's president, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and pausing weapon deliveries to the country - then to retreat in the wake of worried European partners who warn a defeat of Ukraine could disrupt the entire region.

The president loves to tout his ability to sit down and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to move the war any nearer a resolution.

The Russian president may actually be exploiting the US leader's wish for a deal – and belief in direct negotiations - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Putin agreed to a high-level meeting in Alaska just as it seemed probable that Trump would approve on legislative penalties backed by Senate Republicans. That bill was subsequently delayed.

Last week, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the Russian leader called Trump who then promoted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The following day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the White House, but departed without agreements after a allegedly strained discussion.

The US leader insisted that he was not being played by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I've been played all my life by skilled operators, and I emerged really well," he said.

However the Ukrainian leader later made note of the sequence of events.

"Once the matter of long-range mobility became a less accessible for Ukraine – for Ukraine – Russia quickly became less interested in negotiations," he stated.

So, in a matter of days, the president has shifted from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to organizing a Budapest summit with Putin and confidentially pressuring Zelensky to surrender all of Donbas – including territory Russian forces has been failed to capture.

He has finally settled on advocating a ceasefire along current battle lines – something the Russian government has rejected.

On the campaign trail previously, Trump vowed that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that pledge, admitting that ending the hostilities is turning out more difficult than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the limits of his authority – and the difficulty of establishing a framework for peace when neither side wants, or is able to, give up the fight.