--- title: Trump Publicly Rebukes Putin During U.K. State Visit description: President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “really” let him down during a U.K. press briefing. canonical: https://time.com/7318622/trump-rebukes-putin-russia-ukraine-war-ceasefire/ author: Callum Sutherland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-18T18:07:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:17:18.038Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Publicly Rebukes Putin During U.K. State Visit og:description: President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “really” let him down during a U.K. press briefing. og:url: https://time.com/7318622/trump-rebukes-putin-russia-ukraine-war-ceasefire/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5e98e5e5617d3a1/6998c9db9fbc7c2e5cd9a6c4/putin-trump-let-down-sep18.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-SUMMIT-TRUMP-PUTIN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Publicly Rebukes Putin During U.K. State Visit twitter:description: President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “really” let him down during a U.K. press briefing. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5e98e5e5617d3a1/6998c9db9fbc7c2e5cd9a6c4/putin-trump-let-down-sep18.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'He's Let Me Down': Trump Publicly Rebukes Putin During U.K. State Visit > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Callum Sutherland](https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/) ## Callum Sutherland Reporter Sep 18, 2025 6:07 PM UTC  President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet during a US-Russia summit on Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet during a US-Russia summit on Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds - AFP via Getty Images by [Callum Sutherland](https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/) ## Callum Sutherland Reporter Sep 18, 2025 6:07 PM UTC President Donald Trump said Russian President [Vladimir Putin](https://time.com/7310117/putin-talks-trump-ukraine-takeaways/) has “really” let him down in regards to halted efforts to explore a path to peace between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking during a press conference with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Trump admitted that bringing an end to the war, which started when [Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022](https://time.com/6150708/russia-ukraine-invasion-war/), has been harder than he envisioned. \[Trump had initially vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war on “[day one](https://time.com/7206595/donald-trump-day-one-promises-pardons-border-executive-order/)” of his second term.\] “The one that I thought would be easiest, because of my relationship with President Putin \[was\] Russia and Ukraine… But he's let me down. He's really let me down,” Trump said on Thursday on his second state visit to the U.K., during which he signed a [billion-dollar U.K.-U.S. Tech Prosperity Deal.](https://time.com/7318214/trump-starmer-us-uk-tech-prosperity-deal-signed/) “He's killing many people, and he's losing more… frankly, the Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers,” Trump said of Putin’s position in the war. Trump travelled to Alaska in August for a “high-stakes” summit with Putin, their first in-person meeting since 2019\. The summit was intended to foster discussions about a path toward a potential cease-fire, but it ended earlier than expected and [without any deal being reached](https://time.com/7309902/trump-putin-meeting-ultimatum-ceasefire-talks/). Trump and Putin spoke only briefly to reporters afterwards, and neither took any questions. Since then, Trump has made various vows to increase sanctions on Russia, especially as the country has continued its fierce airstrikes, including ones that targeted part of the office of the Ukrainian government earlier this month. The [Kremlin responded to Trump's threat](https://time.com/7315293/russia-responds-trump-united-states-sanctions-threat/) by saying that sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia have “no effect.” However, Trump recently backed away from his threat, saying [he’ll only sanction Russia](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115196697263809382) when all NATO countries stop buying oil from Russia and place tariffs on China. When asked about the status of sanctions on Russia on Thursday, Trump mentioned recent tariffs he had imposed on India for buying oil from Moscow, plus China for its support of Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. “I'm willing to do other things, but not when the people that I'm fighting for are buying oil from Russia,” said Trump, adding that he was “disappointed” that some European countries continued to import Russian oil. **Read More**: [_NATO Says It’s Working to Counter Russian GPS Jamming After Interference With European Commission President’s Plane_](https://time.com/7313738/russia-plane-gps-interference-suspected-president-european-commission/) Starmer, a firm ally of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, urged Trump to increase his pressure on Putin. “We have to put extra pressure on Putin. It’s only when the President has put pressure on Putin that he’s actually shown any inclination to move," said Starmer. “We talk about what might happen after a cease-fire, we mustn't forget that Ukraine needs our support _now_... we must continue to supply them with what they need in order to fight.” “We've discussed today how we can build our defenses further to support Ukraine, and decisively increase the pressure on Putin to get him to agree a peace deal that will last,” Starmer added. “We're sending a lot of weapons to NATO. NATO is paying for those weapons in-full, but we're sending them,” added Trump, who praised the U.K.’s commitment, alongside other NATO members, to spending 5% of GDP on defense per new targets announced at the [organization’s summit](https://time.com/7297698/nato-2025-summit-trump-iran-ukraine-defense-topics/) earlier this year. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7318622/trump-rebukes-putin-russia-ukraine-war-ceasefire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7318622/trump-rebukes-putin-russia-ukraine-war-ceasefire/"},"headline":"'He's Let Me Down': Trump Publicly Rebukes Putin During U.K. State Visit","datePublished":"2025-09-18T18:07:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:17:18.038Z","description":"President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “really” let him down during a U.K. press briefing.","url":"https://time.com/7318622/trump-rebukes-putin-russia-ukraine-war-ceasefire/","keywords":["Donald Trump","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5e98e5e5617d3a1/6998c9db9fbc7c2e5cd9a6c4/putin-trump-let-down-sep18.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Callum Sutherland","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5e98e5e5617d3a1/6998c9db9fbc7c2e5cd9a6c4/putin-trump-let-down-sep18.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-SUMMIT-TRUMP-PUTIN","caption":"US-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-SUMMIT-TRUMP-PUTIN","creditText":"Andrew Caballero-Reynolds - AFP via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7318622/trump-rebukes-putin-russia-ukraine-war-ceasefire/","name":"'He's Let Me Down': Trump Publicly Rebukes Putin During U.K. State Visit"}}]}] ```