Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump during a meeting in August. Photo / Mandel Ngan, AFP
United States President Donald Trump sharply escalated his rhetoric towards Russia today declaring that he now believes Ukraine can reclaim the entirety of its invaded territory.
Trump called Russia a “paper tiger” and expressed support for European countries’ right to shoot down Russian warplanes should they again violate Nato airspace.
Trump has for years expressed empathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin even as he called for an end to the war, and today’s comments amounted to his strongest public support yet for Kyiv.
The remarks came on an afternoon that he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. They went beyond what even many Ukrainian policymakers privately acknowledge is the likelihood that they will not regain full control of their territory anytime soon.
Just a month ago, Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in a warm encounter in Anchorage - and he has spent the ensuing weeks trying unsuccessfully to pressure the Russian leader into a meeting with Zelenskyy as the Kremlin escalates attacks on Ukraine.
Trump’s comments on social media, re-emphasised to reporters soon afterwards, highlighted the mercurial nature of his efforts to end the war.
“I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump said in a post about 30 minutes after his meeting with Zelenskyy.
“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, Nato, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not?”
He said that Russia “has been fighting aimlessly” and that its military has not been dominant.
Later, in comments alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump said that Ukrainians “can fight, too, and they’ve proven that maybe it could be that Russia is a paper tiger”.
Of the Ukrainians, he added, “let them get their land back”.
Ukraine has not had full control of its borders since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and helped foment a separatist war in Ukraine’s east.
The Kremlin has controlled about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory since the full-scale invasion in 2022, and the front lines have largely stagnated.
Ukrainians have long said that they could make more progress with enhanced military support from Nato allies. Foreign aid alone could not solve a shortage of Ukrainian combat-ready soldiers.
Earlier, Trump said that Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes if they violate their airspace, something that has happened repeatedly in recent weeks.
Countries typically refrain for fear of sparking a broader war and because it’s not always clear that such violations are intentional.
European countries including Estonia and Poland that have faced Russian breaches in recent weeks say the Kremlin is doing it intentionally to test Nato.
Trump, ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy, also said the US would consider getting more directly involved if Russia again violated Nato airspace.
“It depends on the circumstance,” he said. “But, you know, we’re very strong toward Nato.”
The comments are the latest indication of Trump’s growing impatience with Putin, as he raised the possibility that the conflict that he once hoped to end could expand unless Putin changes course.
While he and Zelenskyy had an acrimonious meeting in February at the start of Trump’s second term, Trump largely praised the Ukrainian leader today.
“He’s a brave man, and he’s putting up one hell of a fight,” he said.
“We have great respect for the fight that Ukraine is putting up. It’s pretty amazing, actually.”
Zelenskyy declined to discuss specifics of the meeting but later told reporters that Trump had made a “big shift” in his views of the war.
He said that the two leaders were now closer in their understanding of what is happening on the ground.
Ukraine has been seeking more air defence from both the US and Europe.
Trump now understands that Russia’s economy is weak, Zelenskyy said, and that drone incursions and other examples of Russian aircraft in Nato airspace were a sign that Putin was willing to expand the war.
Putin “will not wait for the ending of the war in Ukraine. He will try to find weak places in Europe, in Nato countries,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump’s shift on the conflict was welcomed by European leaders, who had begun to abandon expectations of meaningful progress anytime soon.
“I think that the Russians have again overplayed this,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in an interview on the sidelines of the assembly. “They are very much pushing the envelope.”
Macron also praised his apparent pivot.
“I just saw the message you issued after your meeting with the President Zelenskyy, and I think it a very, a very right one,” Macron said in front of reporters.
“If we back completely Ukraine in the situation, given the Russian economy’s suffering - I mean, there is this opportunity.”
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