European lawmakers have blasted President Donald Trump for failing to publicly condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for meddling in democratic elections.

"I think to do as President Trump did today is effectively to say to countries that are victims of this – you're on your own," said Damian Collins, a member of the British House of Commons.

The Europeans were responding to Trump's comments at a Helsinki news conference on Monday, where he accepted Putin's denials that the Kremlin interfered with the 2016 US election. The president's stance drew strong condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

"I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said at the press conference with Putin. "I have President Putin; he just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."

Collins and representatives from parliaments throughout Europe gathered in Washington, D.C., to attend a conference hosted by the Atlantic Council about Russia's widespread attempts to undermine democratic elections in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. The conference was scheduled long before Trump set the date for his meeting with Putin.

In addition to interfering in the U.S. election, Russia interfered in Britain's "Brexit" election, which resulted in the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. And it has been interfering in the elections of former Soviet bloc countries such as Latvia for nearly three decades.

It's so bad in Latvia that Ojars Kalnins, a member of that nation's parliament, said his government has launched a campaign to ensure that young Latvians can speak their native language as well as Russian so that they will be less susceptible to Russian efforts to spread disinformation through social media.

Hanna Hopko, a member of parliament from Ukraine, said she is worried about Russian interference in her nation's presidential and legislative elections next year.

While the Europeans expressed disappointment that Trump did not stand up to Putin, they said they have faith that the U.S. Congress will work with them to help thwart the Kremlin.

Collins, who is leading a British investigation into Russia's efforts to manipulate social media to influence elections in the United Kingdom, has been sharing information with members of Congress.

He met in February with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., to learn what they've discovered about Russia's use of Facebook, Twitter and Google to spread disinformation in the 2016 election that Trump won.

"What we need to do is collectively call out Russian activity when we see it," Collins said at a news conference. "It's a real threat ... to our democracies."

Warner and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reassured lawmakers from the allied nations that Congress supports them.

"The U.S. Congress has always been 100 percent behind the Baltic states," Kalnins said. "What the president says is something separate."

Trump's meetings with NATO allies last week, combined with his summit with Putin on Monday, have sent a mixed message to America's European allies about Russia, Collins said.

He noted that Trump undermined the need for NATO as a deterrence against Russia, criticized Germany for its reliance on Russian energy, and then sided with Putin while denying evidence from his own U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the U.S. election.

Collins said legislators from Europe and Canada will keep working with Congress to share information and protect their elections from Russian cyberattacks.

"What we're saying today is we're not on our own," Collins said.