President Trump declared Tuesday that a resilient Ukraine can drive Russian troops out of all the territory it has seized, a big shift from his previous pessimistic call for Kyiv to cede lots of land to the invaders.
After an upbeat meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump struck an extremely bullish stance on Ukraine’s position in the war that has dragged on for more than three years.
“Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “Ukraine [should] be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in big economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
Trump belittled Russia for failing to quickly win the war that it unleashed against its smaller neighbor in 2022.
“[It] would have taken a real military power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia,” he added. “In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger.’ ”
It’s unclear if the statement marks a new policy for Trump, who admits being disappointed that he has failed to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.
Trump previously piled pressure on Zelenskyy to agree to give up land for peace and has said Russia would be making a major concession to forgo continuing the war with the eventual goal of seizing all of Ukraine.
If Trump sticks to the new stance, it would mark a huge win for Zelenskyy as he tries to win support for his fight to drive Russia out of Ukraine.
Trump also said he believed NATO nations should shoot down Russian drones or aircraft that make incursions into their territory.
Putin has shrugged off Trump’s pleas for peace and made no major concessions at their recent much-hyped Alaska summit.
Zelenskyy claimed Ukrainian troops have mounted successful counterattacks on the front lines in the contested eastern Donbas region after the Russians had made advances in a grinding summer offensive.
In his meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Zelenskyy was seeking additional help in defending his country from Russia’s onslaught of missiles, drones and bombs.
The two presidents greeted each other warmly, seemingly putting aside the acrimony that marked their squabble at the White House last winter that led Trump to temporarily halt security assistance.
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