‘Putin let me down’: Trump admits to thinking Ukraine war was ‘easiest’ to solve
US President Donald Trump on Thursday admitted to thinking that the conflict in Ukraine would be the “easiest” to solve, expressing his disappointment with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, whom he said had “really let me down”.
Several US-led talks, including Donald Trump’s recent Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, have not yielded any end result so far. (AP)
Trump’s remarks came during a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, wherein the British leader nudged the US President on Ukraine and called for increased pressure on Putin.
However, Trump, who has long shared a friendly relationship with Putin, issued a warning to the Russian leader for continuing the war in Ukraine.
“The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President Putin, but he’s let me down. He’s really let me down,” Trump said.
Several US-led peace negotiations have taken place to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including the summit Trump held with Putin in Alaska. However, no major breakthrough has been achieved in the talks so far.
“War is a different thing. Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought. You thought you’re going to have an easy time or a hard time, and it turns out to be the reverse,” Trump said.
The US President also said that Putin’s “killing many people”, adding that he’s losing more people than he’s killing. He added, “I mean, frankly, the Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers, but, yeah, he’s let me down. I don’t like to see, it’s death.”
Trump also said that the war does “not affect the United States”.
He also urged European nations to stop buying Russian oil, saying that “if the price of oil comes down, Putin’s going to drop out of that war”.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer also suggested that some European nations have not done enough to cut off Russian energy supplies. “I think it is a challenge. There are a number of European countries which are too reliant on energy from Russia,” he added.
Starmer also said that his discussions with Trump included “how we can build our defenses to further support Ukraine and decisively increase the pressure on Putin to get him to agree a peace deal that will last.”
“In recent days, Putin has shown his true face mounting the biggest attack since the invasion began with yet more bloodshed, yet more innocents killed and unprecedented violations of NATO airspace,” Starmer said. He said that Putin’s actions aren’t of someone “who wants peace”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said that Kyiv will receive missiles for Patriot air defence systems and HIMARS rocket launchers in the first batch of weapons being sent under a new funding programme signed with the US and Ukraine’s European allies.
So far, Ukraine has secured more than $2 billion in financing for the US-produced weapons via a NATO-led system called the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), Zelensky said.
The Trump administration has only sold weapons to Ukraine or shipped donations that were authorised by former President Joe Biden, a heavy supporter of Kyiv. However, Trump has been critical of the billions of dollars that the US has spent on military aid for Ukraine.
(with inputs from agencies)
