Zelenskyy addresses UN, as Russia scoffs at Trump's latest assessment of Ukraine war

The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected the central arguments for U.S. President Donald Trump's rhetorical U-turn on the war in Ukraine, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressing the UN General Assembly on Wednesday morning. 

The Ukrainian president has been urging the U.S. to ramp up sanctions pressure on Russia to coerce it into entering negotiations to end the war it launched in on Ukraine in February 2022 — a call he repeated at the United Nations so far this week before his address to the assembly.

In an abrupt rhetorical shift in Ukraine's favour, Trump said Tuesday he believed that Kyiv could recapture all of its land and that it should act now, with Moscow facing "big" economic problems. He also gave support to shooting down Russian drones that enter NATO airspace.

But it was not immediately clear whether Trump would back up his words with a shift in U.S. policy, an ambiguity that could keep the onus on Europe to meet more of Ukraine's needs through weapons and financing as Washington's role recedes.

The Kremlin countered on Wednesday that the Russian economy was stable, despite some problems caused by sanctions, and that Russian forces' slow but steady advance in Ukraine was part of a deliberate strategy — with Kyiv, not Moscow, on the back foot.

Russia controls around one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula Moscow has held since 2014.

"As far as we understand, President Trump's statements were made after communicating with Zelenskyy and, apparently, under the influence of a vision set out by Zelenskyy. This vision contrasts sharply with our understanding of the current state of affairs," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"The fact that Ukraine is being encouraged in every possible way to continue hostilities and the argument that Ukraine can win something back is, in our view, a mistaken argument," he said.

Trump in 'an alternate reality': Medvedev

Though Russia has continued to grind forward in many areas, it has not made a major breakthrough in Ukraine for some time.

Peskov said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later on Wednesday and provide "real information" to Washington about the state of affairs in Ukraine.

Peskov also bridled at Trump's description of Russia as a "paper tiger."

Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said Trump had "slipped into an alternate reality" and predicted he would U-turn again.

Some Russian nationalists saw Trump's flip-flop as a sign he was washing his hands of the war in Ukraine after his unsuccessful attempts to broker a quick peace deal, noting he had not promised any more U.S. help to Kyiv.

"Yes, Trump suddenly told the world about his love for Ukraine," said Konstantin Malofeyev, an ultra-nationalist tycoon and political influencer. "The European Union will pay for everything," he added.

Western military analysts attribute the lack of any recent Russian breakthrough to a determined and resourceful Ukrainian defence and the nature of drone warfare, with both sides worn down by more than 3½ years of war.

Analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he can outlast the political commitment of Ukraine's Western partners and win a protracted war of attrition by wearing down Ukraine's smaller army with sheer weight of numbers. 

Ukraine, meanwhile, is racing to expand its defence co-operation with other countries and secure billions of dollars of investment in its domestic weapons industry.

Ukraine will soon hash out the legal details of a joint arms production venture with the U.S., Kyiv's ambassador to Washington said on Wednesday. Olha Stefanishyna said a Ukrainian delegation will visit the U.S. on Sept. 30 after receiving a "positive signal" from Trump.

Trump and Zelenskyy had previously discussed the contours of a joint production deal involving drones. 

"There was a very lively reaction from the U.S. president. He spent several minutes admiring Ukrainian innovation [and] capabilities," Stefanishyna said on Ukrainian television.

Shifting rhetoric

Trump returned to office for a second term after a presidential campaign in which he promised to be able to quickly broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, while criticizing the billions in military aid provided to Ukraine by the Biden administration, even as many of the exports benefited U.S. arms manufacturers.

Trump had previously suggested Kyiv should consider giving up territory in order to make peace, fuelling Ukrainian fears of behind-the-scenes talks for a deal that would seek to recognize its occupied lands as Russian. Trump famously berated Zelenskyy at the White House in February, saying Ukraine had no leverage to make demands, and at times has seemed to suggest that Ukraine was to blame for its own invasion.