Steve Gutterman
In a sudden shift, US President Donald Trump said Ukraine could win back all of its Russian-occupied territory with the help of its European backers.
His remarks in a social media post on September 23, after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, quickly made waves: In the past, Trump and other US officials have strongly suggested Ukraine would have to cede some land to Russia in any peace deal.
In a tense meeting at the White House in February, Trump told Zelenskyy that Ukraine doesn’t “have the cards” to win the war.
But the post raised crucial questions that it didn’t answer.
Will Trump walk away from his efforts to end the war? Are new US sanctions against Russia still on the table? Could the rhetorical shift change the Kremlin’s calculus when it comes to the war in Ukraine?
Here’s what to watch.
Are Sanctions Still On The Table?
“Putin and Russia are in BIG economic trouble,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post, suggesting that the country’s money problems were one of the main reasons for his newly voiced confidence that Ukraine could restore control over its borders with “time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO.”
While he has threatened repeatedly to impose new sanctions on Russia and countries that help fuel its invasion of Ukraine, in order to further undermine Moscow’s capacity to fight, he made no mention of punitive measures in the post. Some observers read his remarks as a sign that no new US sanctions are in the offing.
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