Washington, Oct 18: US President Donald Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their brutal war, following a lengthy White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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.
“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,” Trump said in a Truth Social post not long after hosting Zelenskyy and his team for more than two hours of talks. “They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!”
Later, soon after arriving in Florida, where he is spending the weekend, Trump urged both sides to “stop the war immediately” and implied that Moscow keep territory it has taken from Kyiv.
“You go by the battle line wherever it is — otherwise it is too complicated,” 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.”
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.
After meeting with Zelenskyy in New York on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly last month, Trump even said he believed the Ukrainians could win back all 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.
Zelenskyy 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.
“The president is right. We have to stop where we are, and then to speak,” Zelenskyy said when asked by reporters about Trump’s social media post, which he had not seen.
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.
The US president also signalled to Zelenskyy on Friday that he is 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.
Zelenskyy at the start of the White House talks said he had a “proposition” in which Ukraine could provide the United States with its advanced drones, while Washington would sell Kyiv the Tomahawk cruise missiles.
But Trump said he was hesitant to tap into the US supply, a turnabout after days of suggesting he was seriously weighing sending the missiles to help Ukraine beat back Russia’s invasion.
“I have an obligation also to make sure that we’re completely stocked up as a country, because you never know what’s going to happen in war and peace,” Trump said. “We’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks. We’d much rather have the war be over to be honest.”
In an interview with Kirsten Welker of NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Zelenskyy suggested the door was not closed.
“It is good that President Trump did not say no, but for today, did not say yes,” he said.
Zelenskyy also said “we need Tomahawks” because “it is very difficult just to operate only with Ukrainian drones”.
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 US-Russian relationship.
But following Thursday’s call with Putin, Trump began downplaying the prospects of Ukraine getting the missiles, which have a range of about 995 miles (1,600 kilometres).
Zelenskyy had been seeking the Tomahawks, which would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target key military sites, energy facilities and critical infrastructure. Zelenskyy has argued that the potential for such strikes would help compel Putin to take Trump’s calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.
Putin warned Trump during the call that supplying Kyiv with the Tomahawks “won’t change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries”, according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser.
It was the fifth face-to-face meeting for Trump and Zelenskyy since the Republican returned to office in January.
The US president said on Friday it was “to be determined” if Zelenskyy would be involved in the upcoming talks in Hungary — suggesting a “double meeting” with the warring countries’ leaders was likely the most workable option for productive negotiations.
“These two leaders do not like each other, and we want to make it comfortable for everybody,” Trump added.
But Zelenskyy told reporters that the animus toward Putin “is not about feelings”.
“They attacked us, so they are an enemy for us. They do not intend to stop,” Zelenskyy added. “So they are an enemy. It is not about someone just hating someone else. Although, undoubtedly, we hate the enemy. Undoubtedly.”
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 Zelenskyy and European allies.
Trump emerged from those meetings certain he was on track to arranging direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin. But the Russian leader has not shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine.
Asked on 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.
“I have been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well,” Trump said. He added, “I think I am pretty good at this stuff.”
