Trump Makes Big Shift on Ukraine War

He says he believes country can win all of its land back from Russia
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 23, 2025 6:34 PM CDT
Trump Makes Big Shift on Ukraine War
President Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in New York.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump said Tuesday that he believed Ukraine could win back all territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from his repeated calls for Kyiv to make concessions to end the war. Trump posted on Truth Social soon after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly gathering of world leaders, the AP reports.

  • "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 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."
  • "Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win," Trump wrote. "This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like 'a paper tiger.'"
  • Trump said that when people across Russia find out "what is really going on" with the war and their economy, "Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!"

  • Trump had previously warned that any peace deal would likely involve Ukraine giving up some land, the BBC reports. He said Tuesday that he had changed his position "after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia military and economic situation."
  • The strengthened support from Trump, if it sticks, is a huge win for Zelensky, who has urged the American president to keep up the pressure on Vladimir Putin to end his brutal war.
  • Trump's previous suggestions that Ukraine would never be able to reclaim all the territory that Russia has occupied since seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 had disheartened Zelensky, Europeans, and Ukrainians and called into question the US commitment to UN principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. But now, Trump's view of the battlefield coincides more with Ukraine's, Zelensky said. "Trump is a game changer by himself," Zelensky told reporters after their meeting.
  • "In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs, which would stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly," Trump told the General Assembly. However, he repeated his calls for Europe to "step it up" and stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin's war machine." On Truth Social, he wrote, "Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act."

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