On Saturday, President Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the ongoing lack of progress in achieving peace between Russia and Ukraine, stating it was “very disappointing” that the conflict has stretched on for over three years.

Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has been working toward a resolution, having vowed during his campaign to end the war swiftly. Although he initially planned a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss peace efforts, he recently canceled the meeting, citing concerns that it might turn out to be unproductive.

“I don’t want to waste my time,” Trump remarked to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Malaysia. “I’ve always maintained a good relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this situation is disappointing. I expected this to be resolved even before peace in the Middle East,” he added.

Trump highlighted his success in brokering peace in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, noting that even Putin praised his efforts during a phone conversation. “Putin told me, ‘Boy, that was amazing,’ because many had tried to achieve that without success. But I managed to do it,” Trump recounted.

While Trump and his supporters have pushed for him to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in settling international disputes, challenges remain. The recent U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is under threat as Hamas refuses to lay down arms, casting doubt on the agreement’s sustainability.

Hopes of ending the conflict in Ukraine potentially took a hit after Trump imposed sanctions on Russian oil companies earlier this week. 

“The USA is our adversary, and their talkative ‘peacemaker’ has now fully taken the path of war against Russia,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia, wrote in a Telegram post. 

“Of course, people will say that he could not do otherwise, that he was pressured in Congress, etc. This does not change the main point: the decisions made are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully aligned himself with a mad Europe,” he added. 

Trump has rebuffed criticism from the Kremlin for imposing sanctions and said Russia’s “hatred” for Ukraine has posed a significant block to progress. 

“I could say almost any one of the deals that I’ve already done I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine but it didn’t work out that way. There’s a lot of hatred between the two,” Trump said on Saturday. 

He later added that he would encourage Chinese President Xi Jinping to continue to pull back on Russian oil purchases in an effort to influence the end of the war in Eastern Europe.

“You probably saw today, China is cutting back substantially on the purchase of Russian oil and India is cutting back completely. And we’ve done sanctions,” Trump told reporters.