ELLESBOROUGH, England — President Trump admitted Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “let me down” in Trump’s efforts to bring an end to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“He’s let me down. He’s really let me down,” Trump said of Putin’s broken promises during a press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his country residence, Chequers.

Despite Trump’s assessment of Putin, the president told reporters that “I hope we’re going to have some good news to you coming up” about the bloodiest conflict on the European continent since World War II. 

“He’s losing many people and he’s losing more people than he’s killing,” Trump said of Putin. “… I don’t like to see it. It doesn’t affect the US other than if you end up in a world war over this thing.”

Trump also reiterated that “millions of people have died in that war” and “I feel I have an obligation to get it settled.”

Later Thursday, Trump clarified a remark he made weeks ago about helping Ukraine in the “air.”

“When I said help by air, I’m talking about security after the war is settled,” he told Fox News’ Martha MacCullum in an interview that aired Thursday afternoon.

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“So after the war is settled, we would help secure the peace.”

The UK PM said earlier in the news conference that Putin had “shown his true face” with Russia’s repeated missile strikes on Ukraine despite the US and Europe’s best efforts to drive peace, adding that he discussed increasing the “pressure” on Russia in his conversations with Trump at the 16th century edifice northwest of London.

Thursday marked Trump’s first substantive comment on the war in Ukraine since his efforts last month to broker a face-to-face summit between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stalled in the face of Kremlin demands. 

Zelensky has repeatedly expressed readiness to meet, with his top advisor Andriy Yermak visiting potential summit locations in neutral countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. 

So far, Putin has only agreed to meet Zelensky in Russia — one of the few countries Ukraine would never consider sending its leader.

Since then, the president has repeatedly threatened — but not yet issued — secondary sanctions on nations that continue purchasing Russian oil.

After months of threatening unilateral punishment, Trump has recently said he wants European nations to boycott Russian oil to ratchet up pressure on Putin to come to the table before the US takes action.

Two European countries — Hungary and Slovakia — still receive the bulk of their energy from Russian oil. 

While Trump wants those nations to stop their purchases first, issuing the secondary sanctions beforehand would be a powerful move to drive those nations to do so, State Department and congressional aides have privately pointed out.

Starmer noted he spoke with Trump about a European boycott, but there are “one or two countries” that need additional pressure to halt additional sales.

“I think it is a challenge to Europe. There are a number of European countries who are too reliant on energy from Russia,” he said. “We do need to bear down work with our European counterparts.”

Ukraine has also been pressing Europe to agree to Trump’s push, which could see the holdout nations purchasing American oil to replace Russia’s. Zelensky recently met with Slovakia’s prime minister with the goal of convincing that government to divest from Moscow.

“We’ve discussed today how we can build our defensive further to support Ukraine,” Starmer said. “President Trump, you have led the way, and we will continue to stand and work together for security and for peace.”

King Charles also noted Trump’s initiative to seek diplomacy in Russia’s war on Ukraine in his remarks at the State Banquet on Wednesday. 

“Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace,” the King said in his speech.

Thursday was the last day of Trump’s second state visit to the UK, the first time an elected political leader has been afforded such an honor.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Slovenia as one of two European countries reliant on Russian oil for energy. Hungary and Slovakia are the two nations in question.