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.
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’s spending the weekend, Trump urged both sides to „stop the war immediately“ and implied that Moscow keep territory it’s taken from Kyiv.
„You go by the battle line wherever it is — otherwise it’s 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 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.
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 hadn’t seen.
