Ukrainians were left unconvinced by the about-turn in US president Donald Trump’s rhetoric at the UN, seeing no concrete military or economic support behind his warm words.
After months of insisting that Ukraine must surrender territory to Russia in exchange for peace, Mr Trump met president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and appeared to dramatically reverse course. Kyiv, he wrote on social media, was “in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form”.
But the words struck Ukrainian politicians, soldiers and analysts as hollow.
“What is new in Trump’s statements made today or what do they mean for us? Absolutely nothing,” said Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a Ukrainian MP with the opposition Holos party. “And what should we expect next? Also nothing.”
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Just last month, Mr Trump had hosted Vladimir Putin in Alaska and appeared to side with the Russian president, abandoning his push for a ceasefire and instead arguing that Ukraine would need to give up land and capitulate to Moscow.
Even Mr Zelenskiy was a “little bit” surprised by the volte-face, he told Fox News on Tuesday.
“I think we have a better relation than before,” he said, speculating that “maybe time” had helped. “I think the fact that Putin was lying to president Trump so many times also made a difference.”
But Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko warned: “Let’s not rush to conclusions just yet. Trump is Trump, and we have seen his mood swings and shifts in political positions more than once.”
With no new promises of sanctions, Ukrainian soldiers felt little reassurance from Mr Trump’s barbs about Russia looking like a “paper tiger” that was in “BIG” economic trouble.
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“Please, let’s not get euphoric just because Trump said that Russia’s economy is collapsing and screwed. He’s already said plenty of things in public, so his words carry no weight,” wrote Oleksandr, a senior lieutenant and war blogger who goes by his first name in keeping with military protocol.
Russia’s biggest economic challenge, Oleksandr said, was Ukraine’s deep-strike drone campaign that had targeted Russia’s energy infrastructure and dented its fuel exports. “Everything else is fiction,” he wrote.
But Mr Trump’s comments on Russia’s economy did prompt a rare rebuke from Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RBC radio that Russia was “in no way a tiger, but more associated with a bear, and there is no such thing as a paper bear”. “Russia is a real bear ... there is nothing paper about it,” he said.
Mr Peskov acknowledged that western sanctions had created “certain points of tension” but said the economy had largely remained stable and could support its war effort. “We are doing this for our country’s present and its future for many generations to come,” he said.
Dmitry Medvedev, a hawkish former stand-in president for Mr Putin, suggested Mr Zelenskiy had lured Mr Trump into an “alternate reality” where Ukraine would win the war.
“But I don’t have any doubt he’ll come back. He always comes back. In all likelihood he’ll tell [Zelenskiy] to sign an act of capitulation in a few days,” Mr Medvedev wrote.
The US president’s remarks and thumbs-up for a photograph with Mr Zelenskiy were a valuable public reset for Ukraine’s president. But for all the warm optics, some Ukrainians feared Mr Trump’s remark about “the financial support of Europe” could actually mean he was stepping back from the war for good.
“Trump’s statement is not about Ukraine’s victory; it’s about washing his hands of the war,” said Oleksiy Honcharenko, an opposition MP in the European Solidarity party. “He is directly saying: you over there in the EU, sort it out among yourselves. I hope it works out for you.”
Mr Fesenko said Ukrainians should see Mr Trump’s comments as “a tactical move”. They were “not about Trump intending to shift the war in Ukraine’s favour; it is more a warning to Putin”.
He said: “For now, it’s only rhetoric – and that may not be enough.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
