Accounts of an upcoming American-Russian presidential meeting have been overstated, it seems.
Just days after President Trump announced he planned to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "in approximately a fortnight" - the summit has been put off without a new date.
A preliminary meeting by the two nations' top diplomats has been called off, too.
"I prefer not to have a wasted meeting," Donald Trump told the press at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I'll see what transpires."
The frequently changing summit is another twist in Trump's attempts to broker an end to war in the Eastern European nation – a topic of increased attention for the American leader after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that truce deal, Trump addressed Steve Witkoff, with a new request.
"We have to get the Russian situation done," he declared.
Nonetheless, the conditions that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for the negotiation team may be challenging to duplicate in a Ukraine war that has been ongoing for nearing several years.
According to the lead negotiator, the key to achieving a deal was Israel's decision to strike Hamas negotiators in the Gulf state. It was a action that infuriated US partners in the Arab world but provided Trump bargaining power to compel Israel's leader Netanyahu into reaching an agreement.
Trump gained from a long record of siding with the Israeli state dating back to his initial presidency, including his choice to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, to alter US policy on the lawfulness of Jewish communities in the occupied territories and, in recent times, his backing for Israel's military campaign against Iran.
The American leader, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that gave him special sway over the Israeli leader.
Add in Trump's connections in politics and business to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a wealth of negotiating strength to secure an agreement.
Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, on the other hand, the president has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has vacillated between efforts to pressure the Russian president and then the Ukrainian leader, all with little seeming effect.
The US leader has warned to impose additional penalties on Russian energy exports and to provide the Ukrainian forces with advanced missile systems. But he has also recognised that doing so could disrupt the global economy and further escalate the war.
At the same time, the president has criticized openly Ukraine's president, halting briefly information exchange with the country and pausing 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 loves to tout his skill to sit down and hammer out deals, but his personal discussions with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the hostilities any closer to a peaceful end.
Putin may actually be using the US leader's wish for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of influencing him.
In July, Putin consented to a summit in Alaska at the time when it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by GOP senators. That bill was subsequently delayed.
Recently, as news emerged that the US administration was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine, the Russian leader phoned the US president who then promoted the potential meeting in Hungary.
The next day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the executive residence, but departed empty-handed after a allegedly strained discussion.
Trump insisted that he was not being manipulated by Putin.
"You know, I have been manipulated all my life by the best of them, and I emerged successfully," he remarked.
But the president of Ukraine subsequently commented on the timeline of developments.
"As soon as the matter of advanced weaponry became a little further away for us – for our nation – 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 Ukraine to organizing a Budapest summit with Russia's leader and privately urging the Ukrainian president to surrender all of Donbas – including land Russia has been unable to conquer.
He has finally decided on calling for a ceasefire along present frontlines – a proposal the Russian government has rejected.
On the campaign trail last year, the candidate promised that he could end the conflict in Ukraine in a very short time. He has subsequently abandoned that pledge, saying that concluding the hostilities is proving more difficult than he expected.
It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the challenge of establishing a peace plan when both parties wants, or is able to, give up the fight.
A seasoned software engineer with a passion for open-source projects and tech education.
