Trump, in rhetorical shift, says Ukraine can retake all its land from Russia

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By Tom Balmforth and Gram Slattery

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he believed Kyiv could retake all its occupied lands and that Ukraine should act now with Russia facing “big” economic problems, remarks that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed as a “big shift”.

But it was unclear if Trump’s words would be matched by a major change in U.S. policy, such as a decision to impose heavy new sanctions on Moscow. Trump has previously suggested Ukraine give up territory in order to make peace.

“Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, shortly after he met Ukraine’s leader on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“After seeing the Economic trouble (the war) 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, describing Russia as a “paper tiger”.

Trump’s tone contrasted greatly with his red-carpet treatment for Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska last month, part of an ostensible push to expedite an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Zelenskiy has been urging the United States to ramp up sanctions pressure on Russia to coerce it into entering negotiations to end the war launched in February 2022, a call he repeated at the United Nations.

The Ukrainian leader told reporters after his meeting with Trump that it had been “good, constructive,” but declined to go into detail about much of the substance of their conversation.

Zelenskiy said on Tuesday they had discussed Russia’s stuttering economy and that “there was an understanding” that Trump would be ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine when the war is over.

He said that Trump had the influence and power to be a “game-changer” for Ukraine in the war, noting also that China retained influence over Russia.

The only firm commitment from Trump in his post was for the United States to “continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them,” an apparent reference to a new mechanism allowing Europe to buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters, Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy cast skepticism on Trump’s message.

“Don’t get so excited about every tweet,” said Polyanskiy.

(Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa; editing by Alistair Bell, Deepa Babington and Don Durfee)