Trump Says Putin Has ‘Let Me Down’ on Ukraine as U.S. Restarts Arms Shipments

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – President Donald Trump delivered a stark and personal rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, declaring he has been "let down" by the Russian leader's failure to end the war in Ukraine, a conflict Mr. Trump had believed would be the "easiest" to resolve due to their relationship. The president’s public expression of disappointment came as his administration approved the first new weapons packages for Kyiv since halting shipments in July, a move enabled by a novel U.S.-managed procurement program funded entirely by European allies, signaling a complex dual-track approach of continued military support amid frustrated peace efforts.

"The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President Putin," Trump stated during a joint press conference in London with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "But he's let me down. He's really let me down."

He reiterated this sentiment in a subsequent interview with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum, saying, “You know, I'm disappointed in Putin. I'll tell you, I'm very disappointed in him.” The president’s comments reflect a significant shift in tone and signal frustration that months of U.S.-led peace negotiations, including a high-stakes summit in Alaska between the two leaders, have failed to produce a breakthrough in the brutal and protracted war.

The U.S. President lamented the devastating human cost of the conflict, framing his obligation to settle it in starkly humanitarian terms. "He's killing many people, and he's losing more people… than he's killing," Trump said of Putin at the press conference. "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."

Acknowledging the geographic distance, he noted the conflict "doesn't affect the United States" directly but told Prime Minister Starmer, “I will say this. It's millions of people have died in that war. Millions of souls… I feel I have an obligation to get it settled for that reason.” In his interview, he put the weekly toll into sharp relief, stating, "last week almost 8,000 soldiers were killed in this ridiculous war."

Despite his personal disappointment with Putin, the Trump administration has moved to ensure Ukraine's military remains supplied.

This week, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby signed off on two $500 million weapons packages, the first new U.S. aid facilitated since the Pentagon halted shipments in July over concerns about depleting American stockpiles. A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that the Department of War facilitated the sale “in line with President Trump’s America First priorities and efforts to bring this brutal war, which was brought on by Joe Biden’s incompetence, to an end.”

The renewed weapons flow is being managed through an innovative mechanism known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL. This program streamlines Kyiv’s access to advanced weaponry by pooling financial contributions from allies, which Washington then uses to procure systems directly from American defense firms.

This marks a sharp departure from previous policy, allowing the White House to sustain Ukraine’s arsenal without seeking new, and politically contentious, appropriations from a U.S. Congress wary of more taxpayer-funded aid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday that Ukraine expects a total of approximately $3.5 billion in weapons funded by European partners to soon funnel into its war effort, specifically for Patriot and HIMARS missile systems.

President Trump’s strategy for ending the war appears to hinge on economic pressure, specifically targeting Russia's oil revenues. During his interview with MacCallum, he expressed deep frustration with European and NATO nations for continuing to purchase Russian oil while the United States works to broker peace.

"I was unhappy with the European Union or let's say NATO when I saw that they were buying oil from Russia," Trump said. "Ultimately, if oil prices go down or if Russia's not selling oil, they have no choice but to settle... You know, if you're gonna win, you're gonna have to not buy oil from Russia." He made it clear he has communicated this position to European leaders, stating, "I let it be known and people were surprised to hear that, but they were doing, they were doing it quietly and slyly and you can't do that."

At the press conference, the president was even more direct, linking a drop in oil prices directly to a potential settlement. "Very simply, if the price of oil comes down, Putin's going to drop out. He's going to have no choice," Trump asserted. He singled out China as the biggest purchaser of Russian oil and suggested European pressure on Beijing could be decisive. “If Europe did something with respect to China, I think China would probably maybe force an end to the war,” he told MacCallum.

The president’s diplomatic efforts in London also included extensive discussions with King Charles III. Trump revealed that while the King expressed concern about Ukraine, he was "more interested in trade than anything else." Trump confirmed his administration is working on a new trade deal with the UK.

These conversations occurred against a backdrop of rising regional tensions. In recent weeks, NATO has been on high alert due to a series of Russian drone incursions into the airspace of member states.

As reported by the New York Times, both Poland and Romania have experienced violations, prompting the scrambling of fighter jets and triggering formal discussions within the alliance under Article 4. The incidents have coincided with Russia's "Zapad 2025" joint military exercises with Belarus, which Warsaw has branded as explicitly "offensive," leading Poland to deploy 40,000 troops to its eastern border, according to a Kurdistan24 report.

Asked about the drone incursions into Poland, Trump said, “They shouldn't have been there,” but stopped short of agreeing with the Polish prime minister that they were intentional, suggesting they could have been disabled and fallen errantly. The escalating military posture on NATO's eastern flank underscores the broader strategic anxieties fueling the conflict.

An analysis in the Wall Street Journal argues that the core driver of Putin's obsession with Ukraine is not military encirclement by NATO, but economic. The piece contends that the prosperity of former Russian satellites that have joined the European Union presents an existential threat to Putin's regime by creating a "giant mirror reflecting back to the Russian people the abject failure of their own country’s system." According to this view, a free and thriving Ukraine would be the tipping point, making it impossible to hide the vast disparity in economic fortunes between Russia and its pro-Western neighbors.

The resumption of U.S. weapons facilitation for Ukraine highlights the immense strain on the American defense industrial base after years of supplying not only Ukraine but also Israel for its war in Gaza and U.S. forces operating in the Middle East. The Pentagon is currently racing to double its monthly output of 155mm artillery shells, a process that leaders admit will take years.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George has warned of the unsustainable nature of the conflict’s economics, where multi-million-dollar U.S. interceptors are used against inexpensive drones. “What we don't want to do is shoot $3 million missiles at $50,000 drones or $10,000 drones,” he stated, urging industry to innovate lower-cost defenses to counter the strategic challenge posed by Russia’s mass use of cheap artillery and drones.

President Trump may have another opportunity for diplomacy next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he may meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. Putin will not be in attendance. For Trump, the path to a settlement remains fraught with what he described as the unpredictability of conflict. "War is a different thing," he remarked at the press conference. "Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought." What began as a diplomatic effort he believed would be his easiest has, in his own words, "turned out to be the reverse."