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US President Donald Trump says Ukraine could win back all of its territory from Russia — and even go further — in a major shift after meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The astonishing turnaround came shortly after Trump also called for NATO countries to shoot down any Russian jets that violate their airspace.
Trump also said Russia was “fighting aimlessly” after three years of war, in an apparent change of heart just over a month after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
What does Trump believe Ukraine can achieve?
“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 on his Truth Social network after his talks with Zelenskyy.
In his social media post on Tuesday, Trump dismissed Russia as a “paper tiger,” saying that “Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
He added that as Russia’s economy gets worse “Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!”
The US president has previously shown lukewarm support for Zelenskyy, with whom he had a huge televised Oval Office bust-up in February during which he told the Ukrainian “you don’t have the cards” to win.
But during his meeting with Zelenskyy on the margins of the UN General Assembly, Trump said he had “great respect for the fight that Ukraine is putting up. It’s pretty amazing actually.”
Many Ukrainians were shocked when Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin red carpet treatment at a mid-August summit in Alaska, and believe Moscow will not stop its war unless it faces heavy external pressure.
How has the Ukrainian leader responded?
Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his “personal efforts to stop this war” and echoed Trump’s call for European countries to stop buying Russian oil.
And after a series of recent incursions by Russian fighter jets and drones that have rattled Washington’s NATO allies in Europe, Trump said they would be within their rights to act.
“Yes I do,” Trump said when a reporter asked if NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace.
Later on Tuesday, Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council that China could pressure Russia to end the war in his country, following a US call for Beijing to stop buying Moscow’s oil.
“If China truly wanted this war to stop, it could compel Moscow to end the invasion. Without China, Putin’s Russia is nothing,” Zelenskyy told the council, of which China is a permanent member.
