After meeting Zelenskyy, Trump calls on Moscow, Kyiv to end war

Washington, October 18

US President Donald Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they were” 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 kept territory it had taken from Kyiv. “You go by the battle line wherever it is — otherwise it is too complicated,” Trump told mediapersons. “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 mediapersons about Trump’s post, which he had not seen.