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Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Ukraine was in a position to win back all of its territory seized by Russia, in an abrupt change of stance by the US president about the war between the two countries.
Trump said that Ukraine, with the support of Europe and Nato, should be able to return to its borders that preceded the conflict.
His efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine have stalled since he met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month.
However, after sitting down with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump wrote in a social media post: “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 also said Nato members should shoot down Russian fighter jets if they crossed into European airspace, though he stopped short of guaranteeing US participation in such military operations.
Trump’s comments on Ukraine’s territorial integrity mark a stark departure from his previous position that Kyiv would have to make concessions to Moscow to end the war, including by giving up some of its land.
He said on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday: “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.”
He even suggested that Ukraine could gain land. “Who knows, maybe [it can] even go further than that!”
Trump said Russia had been “fighting aimlessly”, which was making it “look like ‘a paper tiger’,” adding that Moscow was in “BIG” economic trouble and now was “the time for Ukraine to act”.
He also said the US would continue to supply weapons to fellow Nato members for the countries to do with them what they wished. The US’s Nato allies have sent US weapons to Kyiv.
During a meeting with France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Trump said “Russia should have stopped” the war in Ukraine, in a departure from his previous statements that both Moscow and Kyiv bore responsibility for the conflict.
Trump also said his relationship with Putin, which the US president has often described as being good, “did not mean anything”.
Trump has set a number of ultimatums for Putin to agree to a ceasefire in the war or face consequences, but he has so far held off imposing sanctions on Moscow.
On Tuesday, Trump appeared to set another deadline for peace talks. Asked if he trusted Putin, he said he would let the world know “in about a month from now”.
During his meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump was asked if he thought the US’s Nato allies should shoot down Russian jets if they went into European airspace. “Yes, I do,” he replied.
But he added that direct involvement of the US military in support of Nato members, in the event of Russian incursions, “depends on the circumstance”.
Europe is on high alert following multiple violations of Nato members’ airspace by Russia in recent weeks, which have exposed the vulnerability of the military alliance’s eastern flank.
Russian drones or fighter jets have entered Polish, Romanian and Estonian airspace, prompting Nato to scramble aircraft in response.
The Polish incident marked the first time Nato had engaged directly with Moscow’s armed forces since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Denmark said on Tuesday that Copenhagen airport had been badly disrupted after drones entered its airspace, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen saying “I can’t rule out that it is Russia”.
Trump’s remarks contrasted with those made earlier on Tuesday by secretary of state Marco Rubio, who said Russian fighter jets should be intercepted, and only shot down if they were attacking Nato allies.
“I don’t think anyone said about shooting down Russian jets unless they’re attacking. I think what you have seen is Nato responding to those intrusions the way we respond to them all the time . . . you intercept them”, Rubio told CBS.
Rubio also said the US would defend Nato’s borders: “We will work with our allies to defend every inch of Nato territory. That commitment remains firm.”
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