Donald Trump has targeted Russian leader Vladimir Putin for his “bad leadership” and appeared to reverse his stance on Ukraine retaking territory occupied by the Kremlin’s forces.
During a nearly hour-long speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, the US president said Russia’s war in Ukraine was “making [Putin] look bad” because it was “supposed to be a little skirmish”, and issued a fresh threat of “powerful tariffs” on Moscow.
“It shows you what leadership is, what bad leadership can do to a country. The only question now is how many lives will be needlessly lost on both sides,” he added, claiming that the war has led to the deaths of between 5,000 and 7,000 young soldiers “on both sides every single week”.
The US president has grown increasingly disillusioned with the Russian leader, particularly following Russia’s repeated incursions into Nato airspace in recent weeks, including in Poland, Romania, and Estonia.
Shortly after his speech and a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the US president wrote in a post on his social media site Truth Social that he believes Ukraine can win back all of the territory Russia has taken since its invasion, although he gave no indication of how that would affect US policy.
He had previously said that both Kyiv and Moscow would have to cede land to end the war.
“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,” Mr Trump said in his post.
Mr Zelensky has been pushing Mr Trump to show more support for Kyiv’s war effort, including by imposing tough new sanctions on Russia. Many Ukrainians were shocked when Mr Trump gave Mr Putin the red carpet treatment at a mid-August summit in Alaska, and believe Moscow will not stop its war unless it faces heavy external pressure.
In his post, Mr Trump criticised Russia, saying it had been fighting “aimlessly” in a war that a “real military power” would have won in less than a week. But he has not imposed tougher sanctions, and he and aides have seemed to indicate that Kyiv must cede both Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine to Russia in order to end the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years.
In his post on Tuesday, however, Mr Trump hinted at stronger action. “Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act,” the post said.
Mr Trump said the US will continue to supply weapons to allies “for Nato to do what they want with them”.
Earlier that day, the Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said she “cannot rule out” Russian involvement in the shutdown of Copenhagen airport due to drone activity this week.
Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, Norway, shut down for four hours on Monday evening, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded after drones were spotted circling in the restricted zones.
“We have seen drones over Poland that should not have been there. We have seen activity in Romania. We have seen violations of Estonian airspace,” Ms Frederiksen told reporters.
“This is a serious attack on critical Danish infrastructure,” she added.
In what some fear is the latest – and by far the deepest – incursion into Nato territory, Copenhagen airport announced it was closed for take-offs and landings after “two to three larger drones” were seen flying in the area at around 8.46pm local time (7.46pm UK time).
A spokesperson afterwards said all air traffic at the airport had been suspended, without giving further details. According to FlightRadar, at least 15 flights were diverted to other airports, The Kyiv Independent reported.
At 9.10pm (8.10pm UK time), Oslo police announced that two foreign nationals had been arrested for flying drones within the prohibited zone near Oslo airport.
Copenhagen airport resumed operations shortly after midnight local time, with flights resuming in Oslo after around four hours of restricted airspace.
On Tuesday morning, Danish police warned that a “capable operator” was behind the drone flights.
“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will and the tools to show off in this way,” Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen said.
Police initially refused to comment on an X post by Mr Zelensky, which claimed Russia was behind the airspace violation without providing evidence. Mr Zelensky appears to have taken the post down.
The Ukrainian president is engaged in an intense round of diplomacy at the UN General Assembly in New York, where he is set to meet Mr Trump.
He will continue his relentless push for Washington to issue stronger sanctions against Mr Putin, with Mr Trump sounding increasingly likely to comply.
The US president told delegates in New York that the White House was prepared to issue a “strong round of powerful tariffs” on Moscow.
“In the event that Russia isn’t ready to make a deal then the United States is fully prepared to impose a strong round of powerful tariffs which would stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly,” he said.
But for these to be effective, European countries would have to follow suit, he added, as he slammed the continued importing of Russian oil by several Nato member states as “embarrassing”.
Nato, meanwhile, continues to rally against the Russian incursions, with the North Atlantic Council hitting out at Moscow’s “increasingly irresponsible behaviour”.
The alliance demanded that the Russian incursions stop, and said Moscow bore full responsibility for its recent actions, “which are escalatory, risk miscalculation and endanger lives”.
UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said the UK is “ready to act” and criticised Moscow for its “provocative and reckless” violations of Nato air space.
