President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled a massive shift in American policy with respect to the nearly four-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine by stating his belief that Kyiv’s forces are capable of expelling Russia from all of the country’s internationally-recognized territory while ruling out further direct support for Ukraine by the U.S.
Writing on Truth Social, he said the economic pressures on Russia as a result of the war make it possible for Ukraine to successfully mount a counteroffensive with support from Europe and NATO — but not the U.S.
“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, 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,” he said.
“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.”
The president added that Russian forces have “aimlessly” fought for three-and-a-half years and demonstrated that Moscow is a “paper tiger” because they’ve failed to conquer the entire country and topple Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government — something he claimed “a real military power” could have done in under seven days.
By contrast, he said Kyiv’s forces have “great spirit” and are “only getting better” to the point where they could “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,” he said, adding later that the U.S. would continue to sell arms to NATO nations and allow those arms to be transferred to Ukraine in turn.
The president’s social media post came on the heels of an hour-long sit-down with Zelensky on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly,
Despite their contentious history dating back to an infamous July 2019 phone call which later led to the first of Trump’s two impeachment trials, he praised the Ukrainian leader as “a brave man” who is “putting up a hell of a fight.”
“We have great respect for the fight that Ukraine is putting up. It’s pretty amazing, actually,” he said.
For his part, Zelensky thanked the president for his thus far unsuccessful efforts to bring an end to the war and said he would brief Trump on “good, good news” about “what is going on on the battlefield.”
The president’s apparent shift in attitude towards Ukraine marks a months-long evolution which began in April, when he took to social media to criticize Russian president Vladimir Putin for striking civilian targets in Ukraine.
Since then, he has become progressively more harsh in his posture towards Putin despite a brief thaw around the time of last month’s summit with the Russian leader in Anchorage.
In his hour-long remarks to the General Assembly earlier in the day, Trump said the United States was “fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs” — secondary sanctions — against countries that purchase Russian energy if Europe is willing to do the same.
He said Europe “has to step it up” and characterized some nations’ continued patronage of Russian’s petroleum industry as “embarrassing” because those purchases fund Moscow’s war effort even as Europe continues to support Ukraine with defense aid.
“They have to immediately cease all energy purchases from Russia, otherwise we’re all wasting a lot of time,” he said.
European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen later told reporters that the president was “absolutely right” and vowed to have the bloc halt energy purchases from Russia by year’s end.
