NEW YORK, United States
United States President, Donald Trump, has said Kyiv can "win all of Ukraine back in its original form", marking a major shift in his position on the war with Russia.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said Ukraine could get back "the original borders from where this war started" with the support of Europe and Nato, due to pressures on Russia's economy.
His comments came after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, held after Trump had addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to end the war, but has previously warned that process would likely involve Ukraine giving up some territory, an outcome Zelensky has consistently rejected.
In his post, Trump added Ukraine could "maybe even go further than that", but did not specify what he was referring to.
He also made no reference to Crimea, which was invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump said his position had changed "after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia military and economic situation".
"Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act," he added, labelling Russia as a "paper tiger".
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said "Russia is in no way a tiger".
"It's more associated with a bear and there is no such thing as a paper bear," he told Russia's RBK Radio.
He added that the Kremlin leader "values the US president's efforts to seek a resolution to the Ukraine conflict".
Zelensky hailed the "big shift" in Trump's position, and speaking to reporters in the UN building, said he understood the US was willing to give Ukraine security guarantees "after the war is finished".
Pressed on what this would look like, he added: "I don't want to lie, we don't have specific details," but broached the possibility of more weapons, air defences and drones.
Speaking later on Fox News, Zelensky said that Trump's Truth Social post about Ukraine's positioning surprised him but he took it as a "positive signal" that Trump and the US "will be with us to the end of the war".
"I think the fact that Putin was lying to President Trump so many times also made a difference between us," he told Fox host Bret Baier.
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