US President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “really let me down” after meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss efforts to heighten pressure on Russia to enter negotiations that could help bring the Kremlin’s three-year war in Ukraine to an end.
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“War is a different thing,” Trump said during a joint press conference at Chequers, the country house of the prime minister, following the meeting. “Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought. You thought you were going to have an easy time or a hard time, and it turns out to be the reverse.”
“He has let me down. I mean, he’s killing many people, and he’s losing more people than he’s, you know, than he’s killing.”
Starmer said their discussions had included “how we can build our defences 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, an unprecedented violations of Nato airspace,” Starmer said. “These are not the actions of someone who wants peace.”
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Trump said that the conflict, which began in 2022, was unlikely to affect the US directly – unless it resulted in a sweeping world war – but added that he remained committed to ending the bloodshed. Still, when asked specifically what he planned to do to pressure Putin, the president did not answer directly.