U.S. President Trump’s tone on the war shifted after he held a lengthy phone call with Russian President Putin on October 16, 2025, and announced that he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks. File
| Photo Credit: AP
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday (October 17, 2025) 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.
Mr. Trump’s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office, but with his latest comments, he appeared to be edging 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,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post not long after hosting Mr. 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, Mr. Trump urged both sides to “stop the war immediately” and implied that Moscow keep the territory it has taken from Kyiv.
“You go by the battle line wherever it is — otherwise it is too complicated,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump had shown growing impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war.
Indeed, after meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy in New York on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly last month, Mr. 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 Mr. Trump, who had previously insisted that Kyiv would have to concede land lost to Russia to end the war.
Mr Zelenskyy, after Friday’s (October 17, 2025) meeting, said it was time for a ceasefire and negotiations. He sidestepped directly answering a question about Mr. Trump nudging Ukraine to give up land.
“The President is right; we have to stop where we are and then speak,” Mr. Zelenskyy said when asked by reporters about Mr. Trump’s social media post, which he had not seen.
Mr. Trump’s tone on the war shifted after he held a lengthy phone call with Mr. Putin on Thursday (October 16, 2025) and announced that he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks.
The President also signalled to Mr. Zelenskyy on Friday (October 17, 2025) that he is leaning against selling him long-range Tomahawk missiles, weaponry that the Ukrainians believe could be a game changer in helping prod Mr. Putin to the negotiating table.
Published – October 18, 2025 06:38 am IST
