Trump, in major reversal, suggests Ukraine can win back territory held by Russia : NPR
On the day of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump said that Ukraine “can reconquer the whole territory lost against Russia,” marking a lively reversal of the previous declarations he made about the war.
Steve Inskeep, host:
President Trump has again adjusted his position to Russia. As you may know, he sometimes stretched his hand and sometimes threatened President Vladimir Putin before going back.
Michel Martin, host:
Yesterday, at the United Nations, Trump seemed to return to the old approach adopted by President Biden and supported by many Republicans – obtaining weapons in Ukraine and letting them fight with Russia. He called Russia, quotes, “a paper tiger” and says that Ukraine, with European aid, can reconquer its entire territory.
Inskeep: Trump also said that NATO members should shoot Russian planes if they enter NATO airspace. To come, we will hear the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, where Russian planes stole last week. We start with NPR Michele Kelemen and Trump’s approach to Russia.
Michele Kelemen, Byline: When President Trump took the podium at the United Nations General Assembly, he presented his negotiation skills, suggesting that he should obtain the Nobel Prize for having resolved seven conflicts, but not yet the War of Israel against Hamas in Gaza or in the Russian war against Ukraine.
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President Donald Trump: Among the seven wars I arrested, I thought it would be the easiest because of my relationship with President Putin, who had always been a good one.
Kelemen: He said Russia also thought that this war would be easy.
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Trump: Everyone thought that Russia would win this war in three days, but it didn’t work for this way. It was supposed to be just a small fast skirmish. It doesn’t make Russia beautiful. It makes them look like.
Kelemen: Later, after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump wrote that he believed that Putin and Russia are in great economic difficulty. And with patience and support of Europe, he suggested that Ukraine can reconquer the country in sound, quote, “original form. And who knows, perhaps even going further than that”, wrote Trump with an exclamation mark. Zelenskyy told the United Nations Security Council that he had a good meeting with Trump, and he said that it was Russia that holds peace talks.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: one of the eminent members of this council is to do everything to extend the greatest war in Europe since the Second World War. Russia does it with impunity using its veto, by buying an influence and keeping peace pending.
Kelemen: He said to China, another veto-tutorial of the Security Council, that he had an influence and could force Moscow to end the invasion.
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Zelenskyy: Without China, Putin’s Russia is nothing. However, too often, China remains silent and distant instead of being active for peace.
Kelemen: As for the United States, he says that Russia fears Washington and will pay attention to what Trump does. Russian President Vladimir Putin rarely comes to the United Nations General Assembly and did not do this this year. He sent his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, who should meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio told the Security Council that Trump had spent a lot of time and efforts to resolve this conflict.
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Marco Rubio: The president is a very patient man. He is very attached to peace, but his patient is not infinite.
Martin: Rubio has made the possibility of more strict sanctions against Russia and more arms sales in Ukraine, but he did not explain exactly when the United States could act. Like Trump, he said war was damaged for Russia.
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Rubio: Some of the figures we see and the loss of lives among the military, for example, on the side of the Russian Federation, are narcotic. Staggering. In just one month, more loss of life than in the entire American engagement in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Kelemen: Rubio says that the United States has done what it calls generous offers to have a cease-fire in current lines. But in the weeks following a summit with Putin in Alaska, the Russians accelerated their attacks on Ukraine and sent drones and fighter planes to NATO airspace.
Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the United Nations.
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