Trump says Putin “let me down” as he acknowledges Ukraine war is harder to resolve than he thought
US President Donald Trump says his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has “let me down” as he struggles to broker an end to the conflict in Ukraine, offering a frankly pessimistic assessment of his efforts so far.
“The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President (Vladmir) Putin,” he said after touting the conflicts he’s been more successful ending.
“He’s let me down. He’s really let me down,” Trump went on. “Was going to be Russia and Ukraine, but we’ll see how that turns out. But that turned out to be — I thought it might be among the easiest of the group.”
A series of high-profile summits last month — with Putin in Alaska and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a host of European leaders at the White House — appeared to do little to advance negotiations to end the war.
Trump said he would eventually find success.
“Russia and Ukraine will get done, but you never know in war,” he said. “War is a different thing. 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.”