US President Donald Trump has said that he believes Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia with the support of NATO—a remark that hints at a major shift from his earlier stand that Kyiv would have to make concessions to end the prolonged war.
Trump’s post on Truth Social came soon after he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
“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 wrote.
“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.”
Earlier, while expressing his desire to end the war, Trump had repeatedly maintained that Ukraine would never be able to reclaim all the territory that Russia has occupied since seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Zelenskyy, however, had rejected those proposals.
The Ukrainian president hailed the big shift in Trump’s position and said he understood the US was willing to give Ukraine security guarantees “after the war is finished”.
“Now, Trump’s view of the battlefield coincides more with Ukraine’s, Zelenskyy said.
Trump, in his post, claimed Russia and its President Vladimir Putin were in “big economic trouble”, and said this is the time for Ukraine to act. He also labelled Russia as a “paper tiger”.
Trump was scathing in his criticism of Moscow during his UNGA address where he termed both India and China as the primary funders of the ongoing war.
He hardened his stand on Moscow after his much hyped Alaska summit with Putin last month failed to yield any results.
