What may appear at first glance as stunning U-turn may actually be bad news for Volodymyr Zelensky
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky hold talks at the United Nations General Assembly Credit: Chip Somodevilla
Rob Crilly Chief US Correspondent
23 September 2025
It was striking even by the standards of an unpredictable US president known for surprising allies and enemies alike.
After months of telling Ukraine that its land in the east was lost to Russia and that it was time to settle for peace, Donald Trump offered a striking new position during a day of speeches and meetings at the United Nations in New York.
“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 on his Truth Social platform.
“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.”
Mr Trump delivered his message after a meeting with Volodomyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
It followed two days of soft diplomacy during his state visit to Britain on Sept 17, when the King gently reminded Mr Trump at the Windsor Castle banquet that “tyranny once again threatens Europe.”
Ursula Von der Leyen was present at the talks on Tuesday Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
On Tuesday, headlines came thick and fast after Mr Trump’s post was published.
Social media commentators concluded that the president had pulled off a stunning U-turn, throwing his weight behind a Ukrainian victory and the restoration of its borders.
But has the US president really tired of Vladimir Putin? He is, after all, a leader who has repeatedly delivered warm words to Mr Trump while at the same as time delivering missiles and drones to Ukraine (as Melania Trump has pointed out to her husband in the past).
Was he really now throwing his weight behind Ukraine and a leader he once humiliated in the Oval Office? Up to a point.
This is a president impressed by strength and in thrall to winners.
Mr Trump’s General Assembly speech and his subsequent post made clear that the facts on the ground had left him unimpressed with Russia’s inability to defeat a smaller opponent.
He called Russia a “paper tiger” in comments later in the day.
“In any event, I wish both countries well,” he continued. “We will continue to supply weapons to Nato for Nato to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!”
Look beyond the headlines, and the statement is a lesson in messaging.
Rather than pledging fresh support to Ukraine or loading up action on Russia, Mr Trump appears to be handing things over to Europe and Nato.
There is no suggestion of extra support for Ukraine, or that he will punish Moscow further. His only commitment is to keep selling weapons to allies. Hardly a game changer.
After staking so much of his own reputation to bring Putin to Alaska for talks and putting himself at the heart of negotiations, Mr Trump has learned a difficult lesson: ending a war is hard.
It sounds as if he may have had enough.
………….
Trump tells Ukraine: Take back all your land … then go further
US president makes U-turn as he says Zelensky can take the fight to ‘paper tiger’ Russia and recapture lost territory
Kieran Kelly. Susie Coen US Correspondent, in New York 23 September 2025
Donald Trump has urged Volodymyr Zelensky to take back all of Ukraine’s territory won by Russia and “go even further than that”.
The policy reversal was posted on Truth Social after his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
He said in his 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.”
Dismissing Russia as a “paper tiger” in economic peril, Mr Trump added that Ukraine could “take back their country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!”
In the post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said: “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia military and economic situation and, after seeing the economic trouble it 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.
“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. Why not?”
The comments come just a month after the US president welcomed Vladimir Putin on the red carpet in Alaska.
But speaking with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, on Tuesday evening, Mr Trump admitted: “That relationship didn’t mean anything.”
Mr Zelensky admitted he was surprised by Mr Trump’s comments.
He told Fox News on Tuesday night: “I am sure in my people, in my army, and I am sure in strengthening support of the United States. But President Trump was more positive in it and he showed that he wants to support Ukraine to the very end, so we understand now that we are ready to finish this war as quick as possible.”
The US president has previously refused to fully back Mr Zelensky, pushing instead for an immediate end to the war rather than support Ukraine’s efforts to repel the invading forces.
The pair even had a televised bust-up in February where Mr Trump told his counterpart: “You don’t have the cards to win.”
But now Mr Trump appears to have changed his tune, accusing Russia of “fighting aimlessly” in his Truth Social post.
In response to the U-turn, Mr Zelensky said the post was a “big shift”, adding: “He is ready to give Ukraine security guarantees after this war will finish.”
He said: “Trump is a game-changer by himself if he will be sure [of] Ukraine [winning]. He is… closer now to this situation.”
The Ukrainian president said Putin had shared “fairytales” with Mr Trump about Russia’s ability on the field, while he and the US president had held a “good, constructive meeting” together earlier in the day.
Earlier, Mr Trump said Nato countries should shoot down Russian fighter jets that violate their airspace.
Speaking alongside the Ukrainian president, after the pair held a meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly, the US president also refused to rule out the possibility of America joining military action to shoot down Russian jets.
He said it would “depend on the circumstance… we’re very strong toward Nato. Nato has stepped up”.
Mr Trump was asked by a reporter if Nato countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that violate their airspace. He responded plainly: “Yes, I do.”
He was speaking after a series of airspace violations by Russia, which sent three military jets into Estonian airspace for 12 minutes on Sept 19.
Earlier at the UN summit, the president again praised the Ukrainian army and criticised Putin’s failed invasion.
“It’s not a good thing for Russia, it was supposed to be quick,” he said, referring to Putin’s initial plan to take Ukraine in three days.
“Russia doesn’t look very distinguished having taken three-and-a-half years of very hard fighting. It looks like it’s not going to end for a long time.”
He added: “We have great respect for the fight Ukraine is putting up, it’s pretty amazing actually.”
He said the “biggest progress” was that Russia’s economy was “terrible… it’s crashing”, adding: “Frankly, Ukraine is doing a very good job at stopping this very large army.”
Russia’s recent incursion into Estonia came just days after Moscow sent drones into Poland and Romania, sparking concern in Nato.
Keith Kellogg, his envoy for Ukraine, also appeared to back Nato shooting down Russian fighter jets that violate the airspace of alliance members.
“I thought what [Radosław Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister] said yesterday was really good,” Gen Kellogg was heard telling Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, at the UN.
Mr Sikorski, speaking after the Russian fighter jets in Estonia were repelled by Italian F-35s, said on Monday: “I have only one request to the Russian government: if another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on Nato territory, please don’t come here to whine about it. You have been warned.”
Last week, Mr Zelensky said Nato should have shot down a drone that flew over Romania en route to Ukraine.
The US president initially responded to the initial incursion by suggesting that Russia’s violation of Polish airspace may have been a “mistake”.
But he was contradicted by Gen Kellogg, who responded to the incursion by saying it may have been a “test” of Western resolve.
“If it had all happened at once, maybe you could call it an accident. But six hours of drones? That’s a test – a way to see what the West would do. And we have to respond like it’s a test,” the envoy said earlier this week.
Nato released an official statement on Tuesday condemning Russia’s incursion into Estonia.
It warned Moscow that the alliance was ready to use “all necessary and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions”.
“We will continue to respond in the manner, timing, and domain of our choosing. Our commitment to Article 5 is ironclad,” the statement read.
Gen Kellogg, who has been one of Ukraine’s most vocal backers since Mr Trump returned to the White House in January, met with Mr Zelensky ahead of the General Assembly.
The envoy also held a meeting with Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defence minister, about how to improve Kyiv’s air defences.
But his role has been brought into question several times after he appeared to be frozen out of US-mediated Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
He is also considered to be more of a hawk in an administration that is largely sceptical of continuing support for Ukraine.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump reiterated his call for European countries to stop buying Russian oil.
The president said it was “embarrassing” that European countries were “funding the war against themselves”.
He said later that he would call his “friend” Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, to urge him to stop purchasing Russian oil.
“He’s a friend of mine. I have not spoken to him, but I have a feeling if I did, he might stop, and I think I’ll be doing that,” Mr Trump said.
A beautiful Ukrainian girl who never hurt anyone in her short life was set upon by a filthy savage who stabbed her to death on a train. While she suffered unspeakable agony, the other passengers refused to stop the attack and refused to help her even after the bastard ran away. The maggots just gawped instead as she slowly died.
The Democrat mayor of Charlotte; one Vi Lyles, said :
“This is a tragic situation that sheds light on problems with society safety nets related to mental healthcare and the systems that should be in place,” Lyles wrote in a statement to WSOC-TV reporter Joe Bruno at the time.
The Democrat added that the alleged perpetrator, Decarlos Brown Jr. “appears to have suffered a crisis.”
“We will never arrest our way out [of] issues such as homelessness and mental health,” she wrote.
Lyles appeared to come out against arresting homeless maniacs, adding that she is “not villainizing those who struggle with their mental health or those who are unhoused.”
“those who are unhoused are more frequently the victim of crimes and not the perpetrators.”
This whole ghastly atrocity is a metaphor for Ukraine, which has been attacked by savages even worse than that scrote in Charlotte.
We; the supposedly civilized democracies, are behaving almost as badly as those fucking turds on poor Iryna’s train.
After the attack, Trump said :
“There are evil people and we have to confront that,” Trump said during a meeting of a commission on religious liberty. “I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed (Aug. 22) in Charlotte by a madman, a lunatic, just got up and started to — it’s right on tape, not really watchable because it’s so horrible. But just viciously stabbed, she’s just sitting there. So they’re evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that we don’t have a country.”
But now in the UN, he has reverted to the same even-handed sympathetic drivel towards savages as Lyles :
“I wish both countries the best.”
How the hell can you equate the attacker with the victim in this way?
Krasnov has called Zel a dictator and said he “loves the Russian people.”
On live TV in 2023, he said that “putin’s gonna take all Ukraine.”
He has caused thousands of Ukrainian deaths with his aid blocks, intel blocks, hiring of putlerist trash for his team and successfully establishing the lie that support for Ukraine is exclusively a left wing cause.
Worst of all he has poisoned the minds of millions of Americans against Ukraine.
His unspeakably vile son called Zel a “welfare queen.”
What military support has Trump given to Ukraine in 2025? Close to zero.
A magaputler shithead pretending to be even-handed has posted an obscenity of a comment that praises the nazi-loving propagandist Douglas Macgregor :-
Michael Hurley
“I’m hoping this is just Trump strategy to get Putin back to the table.
If not, God forbid, he is being mislead and needs to stop listening to Kellogg and start listening to Col Doug Macgregor (Col USA ret.), who has been right about everything from the start.
Ukraine is not in any way winning the war and Russia has been picking up the pace of territorial gains over the past few weeks, after fortifying the Eastern front with hundreds of thousands of troops.
Most Western economists agree the Russian economy is likely entering a period of slow growth, with the potential for a mild recession (like the US and much of Europe). On Sep 21st, The Economist published an article with the headline, “Russia’s besieged economy is clinging on…The good times have firmly come to an end, but wage growth remains strong.”
Doesn’t sound to me like “economic peril.”
I’m not a cheerleader for either side, but I believe in self-determination for ethnically Russian areas of Ukraine (that were traditionally Russian), and I believe it’s in the best interest of NATO/the West to avoid WWIII and a potential nuclear escalation.”
I’d like to prosecute and inter people like Hurley and Fucker Karlsonov for providing succour to a genocidal nazi state.
Although the latter has already done enough to go the same way as Lord Haw-Haw.
There is nothing positive in Taco’s persona. He is everything that you don’t want your children ever to be.
Yeah, especially president, lol…
Red I understand you support Trump and certainly that’s your choice. However as a “president” Trump has been putting our nation into an amoral autocratic place having all the earmarks of other dictators such as Orban, Fico and Putin. Seeking retribution against his foes, his continual determination to quiet any media opposing his views, pardoning outright criminals that support his position, placing incompetent and inexperienced individuals in high office for no other reason than payback and people who would never provide any descending views are indications of a nation moving quickly towards…Banana Republic. No sir, this is not the kind of president that I would want any of my children to seek.
That list could also easily be applied to what the Biden admin did. You might also remember all the restrictions Biden put on Ukraine and how little and late the support was. Additionally, you know the democrats are not afraid to take Trump to court so your recourse should be to respect the election and the will of The People.