Donald Trump says he is disappointed in Vladimir Putin

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters early on Friday (July 4, 2025) that he is disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin and does not think Mr. Putin will stop the war in Ukraine.

Mr. Trump also said he will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Trump said that a phone call with Mr. Putin resulted in no progress at all on efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Mr. Trump’s grim assessment came as U.S.-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled, and after Washington paused some weapons shipments to Kyiv.

“It was a pretty long call, we talked about a lot of things, including Iran, and we also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine. And I’m not happy about that,” Mr. Trump told reporters.

Mr. Trump’s view of the call was unusually bleak. After most of his previous five calls with Mr. Putin since returning to power in January he has given optimistic reports of progress towards a deal.

But he has shown increasing frustration with Mr. Putin after an early pivot towards the Russian leader. In recent weeks, he knocked back Mr. Putin’s offer to mediate in the Iran-Israel conflict, telling him to focus on the Ukraine war instead.

(With inputs from AFP)