President Trump was made aware of a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive that requires US intelligence support before he posted a long statement on Truth Social where he insisted that Ukraine could retake all of the territory Russia has captured since 2022 and may even be able to go further, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
US officials told the Journal that the president made the post after spending time with his special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and Mike Waltz, his former national security advisor who now serves as the US ambassador to the UN. Kellogg recently said the US could “kick Russia’s ass” and insisted Ukraine could win the war despite Russia’s continued gains in eastern Ukraine and its clear advantage with manpower and industrial capacity.
US officials said that Trump issued the statement in part to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a deal since there has been little progress since last month’s Alaska summit. But Putin and other Russian officials have made clear they’re prepared to continue the war until Ukraine agrees to their terms, and the Kremlin has brushed off Trump’s comments.
“The fact that Ukraine is being encouraged in every way to continue hostilities and the idea that Ukraine can win something back is, in our view, a mistake,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “The situation on the front lines speaks for itself.”
Peskov also said that it was clear Trump’s comment that Russia was a “paper tiger” was influenced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that Russia would make its position known to the US. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
Zelensky addressed the General Assembly on Wednesday and made an appeal for countries to provide him with more weapons to fuel the conflict. “If a nation wants peace, it still has to work on weapons. It’s sick – but that’s the reality. Not international law, not cooperation – weapons decide who survives,” he said.
