The US President Donald Trump has reversed his position on one of the key foreign policy issues of his administration, now indicating that Ukraine has a chance to win in its ongoing war with Russia.
The president, on Tuesday, said winning back its “original Borders from where this War started” is a very viable option for Ukraine.
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In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump stated that Russia is experiencing an economic crisis while Ukraine now has the capacity to take back parts of the country under Russian control.
This statement follows his meeting with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, which was held after Mr Trump addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.
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Previously, Mr Trump had taken a controversial stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, repeatedly expressing his desire to bring the war to an end.
He had warned that the process would require Ukraine giving up some territory — an outcome Mr Zelensky has consistently rejected.
In the past, the US president had shown lukewarm support for Mr Zelensky and admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
A televised meeting between the Ukrainian president at the Oval Office in February had ended in a hostile clash, with Mr Trump and his Vice, JD Vance, accusing Mr Zelensky of being disrespectful and ungrateful.
“You don’t have the cards” to achieve a good outcome from Russia, Mr Trump had told Mr Zelensky.
This was unlike his meeting with Mr Putin in August, where both leaders lavished praise on one another, with Russia endorsing Mr Trump’s view that the war would never have started if Mr Trump had won the 2020 election.
It is, however, unclear exactly why Mr Trump has now made a sudden shift in his stance and disposition toward Ukraine.
In his social media post, Mr Trump said, Ukraine could win the war “with time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO.”
He also stated 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.”
Mr Trump did not provide any reason for the change in his stance on the war.
However, The New York Times reported that several European officials suspect the president is distancing himself from the war.
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Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump told NATO countries to shoot down Russian aircraft that violate their airspace. He said this in reference to a series of recent incursions by Russian drones in countries like Poland and Estonia.
When asked about Mr Trump’s statement, Mr Zelensky said the switch in positioning surprised him.
He added that he took this 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 News.
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