Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says U.S. President Donald Trump could be a ‘game-changer’ for Ukraine.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump said Ukraine can take back all its territory currently occupied by Russia, an abrupt about-face mere hours after he berated American allies for everything from immigration to climate policy to recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Mr. Trump made the U-turn after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump delivered a nearly hour-long speech in which he said European countries were “going to hell” because of migration, described the scientific consensus on climate change as a “con job” and accused countries such as Canada of giving a “reward” to Hamas by recognizing a Palestinian state.
In a lengthy Truth Social post after sitting down with Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Trump said Russia was a “paper tiger” whose economic turmoil offered Kyiv an opportunity for battlefield success.
“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 posted, adding that Ukraine might “even go further than that!”
He also called for “time, patience and the financial support of Europe” for Ukraine and pledged that the U.S. will “continue to supply weapons to NATO.” It was unclear, however, whether or how he planned to change U.S. policy to match his new rhetoric.
Mr. Trump, who returned to office earlier this year promising to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a single day, has previously pushed for Kyiv to make territorial concessions to Moscow. He also hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month and has backed down on previous threats to increase sanctions. But such overtures have not brought peace closer, with Mr. Putin only stepping up his attacks on Ukraine.
“I thought that was going to be the easiest one because of my relationship with Putin. Unfortunately, that relationship didn’t mean anything,” the President told reporters on Tuesday, referring to his contention that he can singlehandedly end multiple wars around the world. Of Ukraine, he said: “Let them get their land back.”
At the start of his Tuesday meeting with Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Trump praised the Ukrainian leader as “a brave man” and expressed “great respect for the fight that Ukraine is putting up.” He also said that he thought NATO countries whose airspace is violated by Russia should shoot down Russian craft. In the past two weeks, Russian drones have flown over Poland and Romania, and Russian fighter jets have entered Estonian airspace.
During a quick pull-aside meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized his new position that Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia during a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Associated Press
Mr. Zelensky told reporters he had “good, good news” from the battlefield to share with Mr. Trump and thanked him “for your efforts to stop this war.” The pair met for an hour.
Russia has occupied Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula since 2014, as well as part of the Donbas region since the full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukraine also made a much smaller incursion into Russia.
In his earlier speech to the assembly, Mr. Trump said he would impose more sanctions and tariffs on Russia, but only if other countries stopped buying Russian oil and gas.
“Inexcusably, even NATO countries have not cut off much Russian energy and Russian energy products,” the President said. “Europe has to step it up. They can’t be doing what they’re doing. They’re buying oil and gas from Russia while they’re fighting Russia. It’s embarrassing to them.”
Hungary, which is run by Trump-friendly Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Slovakia are the two main European countries that buy Russian energy.
Mr. Trump also used his address, which ran nearly four times longer than his 15-minute slot, to take aim at a string of countries that have recognized the state of Palestine in recent days. These include Canada, Britain, France, Australia and Portugal, bringing the total to 156 out of 193 UN members.
“As if to encourage continued conflict, some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists, for their atrocities,” Mr. Trump said.
Hamas, the perpetrator of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that led to Israel’s invasion of Gaza, is not the recognized government of Palestine, which is the Palestinian Authority.
Mr. Trump also reiterated a call for Hamas to release all 20 of the hostages it still holds from the Oct. 7 attacks, along with the remains of 38 dead hostages. He did not mention Israel’s current incursion into Gaza City nor the humanitarian crisis, including food shortages, hitting the Gaza Strip.
U.S. President Donald Trump told world leaders on Tuesday during an address at the United Nations General Assembly that recognizing a Palestinian state is encouraging the ‘continued conflict’ and a ‘reward to Hamas.’
Reuters
The President spent the bulk of his speech calling on other countries to stop migration and to cease efforts to decarbonize their economies, urging them to instead re-embrace the use of coal and other fossil fuels.
“It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” Mr. Trump said of the scientific consensus on climate change, later adding that “the carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions.”
He criticized the UN for helping asylum seekers and refugees, whom he accused of destroying the “heritage” of European countries as part of a “double-tailed monster of green energy and immigration.”
“The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders,” he said, warning that these countries are “being overwhelmed by people they have never even seen before, with different customs, religions.” He also falsely accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan of wanting to bring “sharia law” to the British capital.
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“I’m really good at this stuff,” he said of his clamping down on migration at the U.S.’s border with Mexico. “Your countries are going to hell.”
He also took aim at the UN for what he said was a failure to stop global conflicts. “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” he said.
And he complained about the UN not awarding him a contract to renovate its headquarters two decades ago, before proceeding to criticize the building’s decor.
During the opening minutes of his speech, Mr. Trump said, his Teleprompter wasn’t working and, earlier, when he was arriving, an escalator stopped functioning while he was on it.
“Whoever’s operating this Teleprompter is in big trouble,” he said. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad Teleprompter.”