US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he believes Ukraine, with the support of the European Union and NATO, can win back all of the territory Russia has taken since its invasion.
Trump, who met with Ukraine's leader at the United Nations earlier on Tuesday, has previously said that both Kyiv and Moscow would have to cede land to end the war.
"With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started are very much an option," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
In the post, Trump criticized Russia's prosecution of the war, saying it had been fighting "aimlessly" in a war that a "real military power" would have won in "less than a week."
"Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act," the post continues.
Trump said the US will continue to supply weapons to NATO "for NATO to do what they want with them."
Zelenskiy meets Trump at UN
During the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Zelensky called for pressure to be ramped up on Russia as he tries to persuade the US president to swing more firmly behind Kyiv's war effort.
The Ukrainian leader told reporters as he sat beside Trump at the start of the meeting that he had "good news" to share from the battlefield where Kyiv's forces have been locked in fierce fighting with Russia for over three and a half years.
"We need more pressure, more sanctions now with (the) United States, first of all (and) Europe," he said in opening remarks, adding that he wanted to discuss Trump's call for all remaining European powers to stop buying Russian energy altogether.
The Ukrainian leader told reporters he wanted to discuss US involvement in Western security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a future post-war settlement during their talks.
He was also expected to discuss how to improve Ukraine's air defenses and to set up a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine as part of Trump's peace effort, a source in Ukraine's delegation told Reuters ahead of the talks.
Trump has pushed the idea of a meeting between Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly with him also taking part, as a way to make progress in his bid to end the war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Moscow has said no such meeting is planned and that the agenda would have to be well prepared for it to happen. Kyiv has pointed to that as proof that Russia is not willing to deviate from its maximalist aims and is obstructing Trump's efforts.