President Donald Trump said Tuesday afternoon that he thinks Ukraine, with help from the European Union, could win back its territory from Russia and return the country to its original borders.
The president had suggested numerous times that giving up some land would be a key component of resolving Ukraine’s war with Russia.
“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,” Trump said in a lengthy post on Truth Social.
The president said that with the financial support of NATO, returning Ukraine to its original borders is “very much an option.” He added that 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. This is not distinguishing Russia.”
Trump suggested that once Russian citizens realize how much is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which he said has “Great Spirit, and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!”
The president said Russian President Vladimir Putin and his country are in “BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act.” He said that the U.S. will continue to supply weapons to NATO “for NATO to do what they want with them.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Trump envisions the borders returning to what they were before Russia invaded in February 2022, or if it would also include Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asked about Trump’s post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters: “It’s a big shift. This post of Trump it’s a big shift. Very positive.”
During a Fox News interview later on Tuesday, Zelenskyy added that he believes Trump “understands, for today, that we can’t just swap territories, it’s not fair.”
Asked if he thinks Trump has changed his earlier position regarding Ukrainian territory, Zelenskyy told host Bret Baier, “Yes, I think so.”
The goal of Trump’s social media post and subsequent comments to reporters about it was to exert “maximum public pressure on Russia to get them to the table for a deal” to end the war, according to a senior administration official.
The official told NBC News that the administration’s next steps will depend on how the Russians respond. This official did not outline any specific policy shift happening now, or set to happen in reaction to whatever Russia says or does next.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Trump on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting on Tuesday afternoon, applauded Trump’s statement, saying, “I think it’s a very, very right one.”
“If we back completely Ukraine in this situation, given the Russian economy is suffering, I mean, there is this opportunity of a good future,” Macron told Trump.
Trump then added, “I really do feel that way. Let them get their land back.”
The president’s post represents a significant shift from previous statements regarding the conflict. While Trump had become increasingly critical of Putin, saying last week that the Russian leader has “really let me down,” he had generally maintained a more neutral approach when trying to bring both sides together for negotiations since their bilateral meeting last month in Alaska.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican on the Appropriations Committee, called Trump’s shift “a gamechanger” in a social media post Tuesday.
“This commitment to continue to sell high end American weapons to NATO for the benefit of Ukraine tremendously changes the military equation for Russia,” Graham wrote.
“President Trump is correct in assessing that the Russian economy is under stress and this will only get worse if we make buying cheap Russian oil and gas toxic for those who choose that path,” added Graham, who said last month that Russia and Ukraine would have to swap some territory to end the war.
Russia has said that it wants Ukraine to cede roughly 20% of the territory claimed by Putin as part of its conditions to end the war. It has also demanded that Ukraine not be permitted to join NATO.
Kyiv has refused to recognize those annexations, and its European allies argue that Russia cannot veto Ukraine’s potential NATO membership.
Trump’s post on social media came after he met earlier in the day with Zelenskyy for the fifth time in person during his second term on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Before their closed-door conversation, Trump told reporters that he supports NATO countries shooting down any Russian aircraft that violate their airspace. When asked if the U.S. would back up NATO allies, he said it would “depend” on the circumstances.
Trump also conveyed to the press that there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight for the conflict. “It looks like it’s not going to end for a long time,” he said.
During Trump’s Tuesday morning speech before the U.N. General Assembly, he criticized European nations that have continued to purchase oil from Russia despite wanting to ramp up pressure on Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly said that exchanging territory between Ukraine and Russia would be a key element of any solution to end the war.
At the White House last month, Trump suggested that there have been talks about Russia and Ukraine potentially “swapping” territory as part of a ceasefire deal.
“We’re actually looking to get some back and some swapping. It’s complicated. It’s actually nothing easy. It’s very complicated,” Trump said Aug. 8 during an event with leaders from Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“But we’re going to get some back. We’re going to get some switched,” he added. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both and … we’ll be talking about that either later or tomorrow, or whatever.”
Ahead of the annual U.N. gathering in New York this week, Zelenskyy called on European countries and the U.S. to intensify pressure on Russia with secondary sanctions. He cited the ongoing attacks against his country, including a large-scale missile and drone attack over the weekend that killed at least three people and wounded dozens more.
Zelenskyy said during Tuesday’s Fox News interview that he had spoken with Trump about intensifying pressure “directly on Putin,” and on Russia’s energy network and its financing and banking systems.
“We spoke with details about it, and we count on sanctions from the United States side,” Zelenskyy said.
NATO members have been rattled recently after Russia flew drones over Poland and sent jets into Estonian airspace, actions that could be tests of NATO’s emergency procedures, which Russia’s Ministry of Defense has denied.
On Monday night, two or three large drones flew over Copenhagen airport — Scandinavia’s largest — forcing its closure. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday that Russian involvement could not be ruled out.