By Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — Amid the pageantry and pomp of this week’s state visit, the war in Ukraine tested the ability of Britain’s legendary soft power to convince President Donald Trump to increase his pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As Trump’s visit concluded Thursday, it was far from clear the ornate banquet, subtle nudging from King Charles III and constant reminders of America’s role in safeguarding Europe had achieved their objective.

Trump offered few indications he was willing to quickly ramp up pressure on Russia, despite saying Putin had “let me down,” and repeated his insistence that European nations take action first.

“I’m willing to do other things, but not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia,” he said. “If the oil price comes down, very simply, Russia will settle.”

It was not quite the pledge of action that some of Ukraine’s European partners were hoping for. The topic – along with the war in Gaza – was at the center of Trump’s meetings earlier in the day with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to cajole Trump into adopting a tougher stance toward Moscow.

At Chequers, the prime minister’s country home in Buckinghamshire, the two men viewed items from the Winston Churchill archive, another reminder of the wartime role the United States once played in Europe. Speaking alongside Trump at a joint news conference, Starmer kept pushing for tighter measures, and said it was Trump who would could have the most impact.

“We have to put extra pressure on Putin,” he said. “And it’s only when the president has put pressure on Putin that he’s actually shown any inclination to move. So we have to ramp that pressure up.”

Ahead of Trump’s visit this week, the hope among some European officials was that perhaps a royal charm offensive might instill in the president a new appreciation for the long history of the US’ role in European security, and a fresh perspective on his counterparts’ calls for new action against Russia.

Some of those officials (perhaps hopefully) tried to read into first lady Melania Trump’s sunflower-hued Carolina Herrera gown at Wednesday’s banquet — which, when paired with Queen Camilla’s royal blue ensemble, mimicked the Ukrainian flag — as tacit support for the country.

And in a speech that studiously avoided any glint of geopolitics, Charles’ fleeting mention of Ukraine — however small — stood out at Wednesday’s dinner.

“In two World Wars, we fought together to defeat the forces of tyranny,” Charles told Trump underneath the vaulted ceilings of Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Hall. “Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace.”

It was a notable, if gentle, reminder to his guest that American participation in the Western effort to deter Russia’s war remains a necessary and urgent imperative, even as Trump appears to waver on applying new sanctions on Moscow and seems, again, upset at Ukraine’s leader for not accepting a deal.

Charles’ mention of the war was hardly an accident. His remarks would have been written with input from Britain’s government. And the king — who sources say is up-to-date on ceasefire talks — has previously shown a willingness to embrace the Ukrainian cause, including in March when he hosted President Volodymyr Zelensky at Sandringham, his private home, three days after the Ukrainian leader’s explosive Oval Office blow-up with Trump.

Zelensky on Thursday thanked Charles for his “steadfast support” for Ukraine. “When tyranny threatens Europe once again, we must all hold firm, and Britain continues to lead in defending freedom on many fronts,” he said in a statement.

Trump largely unmoved on Ukraine and Gaza

The day after Charles’ toast, Trump appeared mostly disappointed that his long relationship with Putin had so far proved worthless in ending the war.

“The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President Putin,” he said after touting the conflicts he’s found more success in ending.

“He’s let me down. He’s really let me down,” Trump went on. “Was going to be Russia and Ukraine, but we’ll see how that turns out. But that turned out to be — I thought it might be among the easiest of the group.”

On the Middle East, Trump was more willing to break openly with Starmer, who plans in the coming days to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

“I have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score,” Trump said at Thursday’s news conference, avoiding multiple questions about what pressure he was willing to apply on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – with whom he has been privately frustrated – to quickly wrap up the conflict.

For a president feted in public this week as a global peacemaker, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza stood out as examples where Trump seems unmoving – for now – in his willingness to apply new pressure to end the fighting.

And if the royal welcome and displays of pomp were intended in part to help advance Britain’s positions on the wars, there was little evidence as Trump departed they were successful.

Stalled negotiations on Ukraine

Trump’s high-profile summits last month — with Putin in Alaska and with Zelensky and a host of European leaders at the White House — have appeared to do little to advance negotiations.

Russia has maintained its maximalist demands to end the war, including taking over the entire Donbas region and insisting Ukraine never join NATO. Most recently, its drones flew into airspace over Poland — a NATO member — an escalation of the conflict that prompted outrage and pledges from European nations (but not the United States) to bolster their military presence in the region.

And it was Zelensky who Trump said Tuesday must agree to a deal to end the war and European nations — not the United States — who he said must step up their efforts to apply pressure on Putin.

“He’s going to have to get going and make a deal. He’s going to have to make a deal. Zelensky is going to have to make a deal,” Trump said as he was leaving the White House for the UK earlier this week.

While Trump has applied a new tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, he has stopped short of taking action against the other top purchaser — China, with whom he is trying to broker a trade deal.

Trump spoke on Tuesday with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and is scheduled to speak Friday with China’s leader Xi Jinping. It wasn’t clear how much he intended to raise the war in Ukraine with either man.

European leaders, meanwhile, have struggled to respond to Trump’s demands. There appeared little likelihood they would agree to new tariffs on China or India, important trading partners. European officials have said they don’t plan to use tariffs as pressure tactics in the way Trump uses them.

And while European nations have tried to speed up efforts to end imports of Russian oil and natural gas, some countries — including Hungary, led by top Trump ally Viktor Orban — continue to rely on the products.

That has left little optimism among European officials that Trump will enact new measures, with many saying they believe the demands he began laying out earlier this month were just another attempt at stalling on new action.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.