WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s “not happy” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, saying Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine is “killing a lot of people” on both sides.

“We get a lot of bull--t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting. “He’s very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

The president also acknowledged that his previous suggestions that he might be able to cajole Russia’s president into bringing the fighting to a close and quickly ending the war in Ukraine has “turned out to be tougher.”

Trump said that after a phone call with Putin last week, “I don’t think he’s looking to stop” the war.

The Cabinet meeting comments came a day after Trump said the United States will now send more weapons to Ukraine — reversing a previous announcement of a pause in critical, previously approved firepower deliveries to Ukraine amidst concerns that America’s own military stockpiles have declined too much.

“We wanted (to) put defensive weapons (in). Putin is not, he’s not treating human beings right,” Trump said during the Cabinet meeting, explaining the pause’s reversal. “It’s killing too many people. So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I’ve approved that.”

Caught ‘flat footed’?

Trump’s decision to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine came after he privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing the pause in some deliveries last week — a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The Pentagon, which announced last week that it would hold back some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons pledged to Ukraine because of what U.S. officials said were concerns that American stockpiles were in short supply.

But the president refused to provide more details on that matter Tuesday.

While seated beside his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, Trump was repeatedly pressed about who ordered the pause. “I don’t know,” he said to the reporter. “Why don’t you tell me?”

Two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive internal discussions, said there was some internal opposition among Pentagon brass to the pause — coordinated by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby — before it was announced.

One of the people described Trump as being caught “flat footed” by the announcement. The White House did not respond to queries about whether Trump was surprised by the Pentagon pause.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson denied that Hegseth had acted without consulting the president.

“Secretary Hegseth provided a framework for the President to evaluate military aid shipments and assess existing stockpiles. This effort was coordinated across government,” Wilson said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Impediment to peace

Still, expressing his open displeasure with Putin underscores how much Trump’s thinking on Russia and Ukraine policy has shifted since he returned to the White House in January. It also lays bare how tricky navigating the ongoing conflict has proved to be.

The harsh rhetoric was notable for Trump, who has often expressed skepticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine and admiration for Putin’s intelligence and strength. Just months ago, Trump dressed down Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, claiming he had been insufficiently grateful for America’s support.

But Trump has increasingly suggested that Putin has become an impediment to the peace deal he is seeking to negotiate.

On Friday, Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with the largest number of drones and missiles launched in a single barrage so far in the war, according to the Ukrainian air force. The attack came just hours after the phone call between Trump and Putin.

Trump suggested during last year’s campaign that he could quickly end the Russia-Ukraine war. But by April, he was using his Truth Social account to exhort Putin to end military strikes on the Ukrainian capital.

Asked during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting what his growing displeasure with Putin might mean for U.S. foreign policy, Trump declined to discuss specifics.

“I will say, the Ukrainians were brave. But we gave them the best equipment ever made,” Trump said. He also said that without U.S. weapons and military support, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 might have otherwise sparked what “probably would have been a very quick war.”

“It would have been a war that lasted three or four days,” he said, “but they had the benefit of unbelievable equipment.”

This report contains information from the New York Times.