President Donald Trump said he never discussed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his phone call with him earlier this week.
He also said, however, during his press conference on Saturday, that he is "not thrilled" with Putin as he's "killing too many people" in Russia's war with Ukraine.
The Russia-Ukraine war, he added, is a "bloodbath" and said he wants it to end.
However, Trump said ending the hostilities there is proving harder than with other wars he's stopped.
"I thought the easiest one would be, one of the easier ones would be Russia, Ukraine. It's not," he said. "And they both have done some pretty bad things."
Trump also placed responsibility for the conflict on his predecessor.
"And look, that's former President Joe Biden's war. That's not my war," he said. "But I want to stop the lives."
Citing casualty figures, Trump said, "Did you see where last month 30,000. This last it was 27, 27,000 the month before; 30,000 mostly soldiers were killed. This last month. 30,000. I want to stop that."
Trump said he pressed NATO members to increase spending and described continued U.S. support for Ukraine's defense.
"You know, I got NATO to pay 5% instead of the 2% that they weren't paying. They weren't paying two. Now they pay five, and we send them a lot of munitions," he said. "We send them a lot of things, missiles and various other things a lot. And they pay."
He said the death toll extends beyond soldiers and includes civilians in Ukrainian cities.
"Life is a big deal," Trump said. "But if I can stop that war and stop 30,000 young people, in addition to the fact that people are being killed in Kyiv, people are being killed in other cities throughout, you know, a much smaller number, but they're being killed, viciously killed."
Trump said U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is involved and suggested movement toward an outcome, while repeating his claim the conflict would not have begun if he had been in office.
"We have Mr. Witkoff here. I think that we're making progress," he said. "But that's a war that should have never happened. If I were president, it would have never happened. Putin says it. Everybody says it."
"I inherited that war," said Trump. "That was Joe Biden, [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, and Putin. I came into the situation, and it's a mess."
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