US President Trump has changed his rhetoric on Russia’s war against Ukraine. Writing on his social media site, Truth Social, he said Ukraine could “take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!” Earlier, Trump had addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, where he met with the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, among others.
“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? 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,” the US president wrote.
Trump repeated this later during a meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. He claimed that Russia might prove to be a “paper tiger,” given that it had had only limited success, despite huge loss of life. However, Trump also speculated that Russia’s war against Ukraine “won’t end for a long time.”
Zelenskyy positively surprised
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy saw Trump’s statement as a positive signal. “It was a bit of a surprise for me,” he admitted in an interview with Fox News. However, he declared that he now saw “very positive signals … that Trump and America will be with us to the end of the war. We will see; but, God [willing], it will be so.”
A meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump in the Oval Office in February this year famously ended in a row on live television. Now, the US president is expressing admiration for the Ukrainian leader’s courage. The White House’s X account reposted a clip in which Trump, sitting alongside Zelenskyy, said: “He’s a brave man, and he’s putting up one hell of a fight.”
What do Ukrainian politicians make of Trump’s remarks?
Mykhailo Podolyak is the advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. He suspects that the change in Trump’s rhetoric has come about because the US president has realized that “Putin is clearly completely destroying his reputation.”
“Trump hoped that his previous acquaintance with Putin would enable him to find a solution for a major, fundamental, pan-European conflict, which would make the US look correspondingly powerful,” Podolyak told DW. “But he’s realized that this is an illusion.”
In Podolyak’s view, the most important consequence of Trump’s changed rhetoric is the American president’s readiness “to sell far more weapons through NATO to European countries.” — “All of this needs to be on the battlefield,” he stresses. He also believes that putting economic pressure on Russia is an effective way to persuade the Kremlin to stop pursuing the war.
However, Oleksiy Honcharenko of the “European Solidarity” opposition group in the Ukrainian parliament says his country should take care not to be too optimistic. He warns that Trump’s words don’t signify any real help; they only show that the US president wants to retreat from any involvement in the conflict. “Trump is not talking about a Ukrainian victory. He’s washing his hands of this war,” Honcharenko wrote on Telegram. “He’s saying, ‘Talk to the EU and figure it out. I hope you manage it. Good luck to you all!”
His party colleague and fellow parliamentarian Volodymyr Aryev advises Ukrainians not to have any illusions. Essentially, he says, the US president’s position remains unchanged: Trump has simply confirmed what Ukrainians have known for a long time. “If Trump and Europe switch from words to lots of weapons and heavy sanctions, then we can talk about a change in the circumstances of the war as a whole,” Ariev wrote on Facebook.
There is not a great deal of optimism among deputies from the pro-presidential political faction, either. Danylo Hetmantsev, a representative of the “Servant of the People” party, believes Trump has finally understood that Russia doesn’t want peace. “Trump’s comment that the war won’t end for a long time is actually a bad scenario. It means that even Trump, who believed he could quickly end the war in Ukraine and get the Nobel Peace Prize, is no longer convinced of this outcome,” Hetmantsev wrote on Telegram.
What might be behind Trump’s new rhetoric?
Dmytro Levus, the director of the Ukrainian Center for Social Research, believes the shift in Trump’s stance on Ukraine’s ability to reconquer all of its territory is the result of continuous work by Ukraine and its European partners.
But the political scientist comments that Russia itself has also influenced Trump’s position. Even when concessions have been made, Moscow has continued to stick to its positions, adopted a superior attitude, and sought Kyiv’s capitulation. This may have disappointed Trump, Levus says.
Oleksandr Kraiev, a North America expert with the Ukrainian Prism thinktank, doesn’t hide his skepticism. “This still looks like ‘parrot diplomacy’ from Trump. He repeats what he’s heard most often, and the information he’s recently received,” Kraiev told DW. “Trump met with the European and Ukrainian delegations: He’s keeping the channels of communication open, and saying what we want to hear. In his books, he wrote that you have to tell people whatever pleases them if you want to get an agreement.”
This article has been translated from German.
