{"id":130022,"date":"2025-10-18T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/130022\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:04:09","slug":"trump-calls-on-ukraine-and-russia-to-stop-where-they-are-and-end-the-war-after-zelensky-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/130022\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump calls on Ukraine and Russia to \u2018stop where they are\u2019 and end the war after Zelensky meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump’s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office, but with his latest comments he edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,\u201d Trump said in a Truth Social post not long after hosting Zelensky and his team for more than two hours of talks. \u201cThey should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, soon after arriving in Florida, where he’s spending the weekend, Trump urged both sides to \u201cstop the war immediately\u201d and implied that Moscow keep territory it\u2019s taken from Kyiv.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go by the battle line wherever it is \u2014 otherwise it’s too complicated,\u201d Trump told reporters. “You stop at the battle line and both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing, and that should be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Russian<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo\/AP)<\/p>\n

The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by Trump. In recent weeks, he had shown growing impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war.<\/p>\n

After meeting with Zelensky in New York on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly last month, Trump even said he believed the Ukrainians could win back all the the territory they had lost to Russia since Putin launched the February 2022 invasion. That was a dramatic shift for Trump, who had previously insisted that Kyiv would have to concede land lost to Russia to end the war.<\/p>\n

Zelensky after Friday’s meeting said it was time for a ceasefire and negotiations. He sidestepped directly answering a question about Trump nudging Ukraine to give up land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president is right we have to stop where we are, and then to speak,\u201d Zelensky said when asked by reporters about Trump\u2019s social media post, which he hadn’t seen.<\/p>\n

Trump’s tone on the war shifted after he held a lengthy phone call with Putin on Thursday and announced that he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

The president also signalled to Zelensky on Friday that he’s leaning against selling him long-range Tomahawk missiles, weaponry that the Ukrainians believe could be a game changer in helping prod Putin to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky (Alex Brandon\/AP)<\/p>\n

Zelensky at the start of the White House talks said he had a \u201cproposition\u201d in which Ukraine could provide the United States with its advanced drones, while Washington would sell Kyiv the Tomahawk cruise missiles.<\/p>\n

But Trump said he was hesitant to tap into the U.S. supply, a turnabout after days of suggesting he was seriously weighing sending the missiles to help Ukraine beat back Russia’s invasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have an obligation also to make sure that we\u2019re completely stocked up as a country, because you never know what\u2019s going to happen in war and peace,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks. We’d much rather have the war be over to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with Kristen Welker of NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Zelensky suggested the door was not closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good that President Trump didn\u2019t say \u2018no,\u2019 but for today, didn\u2019t say \u2018yes,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zelensky also said \u201cwe need Tomahawks\u201d because \u201cit\u2019s very difficult just to operate only with Ukrainian drones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump’s latest rhetoric on Tomahawks was certainly disappointing to the Ukrainians. In recent days, Trump had shown an openness to selling Ukraine the Tomahawks, even as Putin warned that such a move would further strain the U.S.-Russian relationship.<\/p>\n

But following Thursday\u2019s call with Putin, Trump began downplaying the prospects of Ukraine getting the missiles, which have a range of about 995 miles (1,600 kilometers.)<\/p>\n

Zelensky had been seeking the Tomahawks,<\/a> which would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target key military sites, energy facilities and critical infrastructure. Zelensky has argued that the potential for such strikes would help compel Putin to take Trump\u2019s calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.<\/p>\n

Putin warned Trump during the call that supplying Kyiv with the Tomahawks \u201cwon\u2019t change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries,\u201d according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin\u2019s foreign policy adviser.<\/p>\n

It was the fifth face-to-face meeting for Trump and Zelensky since the Republican returned to office in January,<\/p>\n

The president said Friday it was \u201cto be determined\u201d if Zelensky would be involved in the upcoming talks in Hungary \u2014 suggesting a \u201cdouble meeting\u201d with the warring countries’ leaders was likely the most workable option for productive negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two leaders do not like each other, and we want to make it comfortable for everybody,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n

But Zelensky told reporters that the animus toward Putin \u201cis not about feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey attacked us, so they are an enemy for us. They don\u2019t intend to stop,” Zelensky added. “So they are an enemy. It is not about someone just hating someone else. Although, undoubtedly, we hate the enemy. Undoubtedly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, going back to his 2024 campaign, insisted he would quickly end the war, but his peace efforts appeared to stall following a diplomatic blitz in August, when he held a summit with Putin in Alaska and a White House meeting with Zelensky and European allies.<\/p>\n

Trump emerged from those meetings certain he was on track to arranging direct talks between Zelensky and Putin. But the Russian leader hasn\u2019t shown any interest in meeting with Zelensky and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Asked Friday if he was concerned that Putin was stringing him along, Trump acknowledged it was a possibility but said he was confident he could handle the Russian leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well,” Trump said. He added, \u201cI think I\u2019m pretty good at this stuff.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump’s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,23,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-130022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latest-news-ticker","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}