After Zelensky meeting, Trump calls on Ukraine and Russia to ‘stop there’ and end the war: NPR

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday 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.

Trump’s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to power, but with his latest comments he has returned to the direction of pressuring Ukraine to give up on taking back land it lost to Russia.

“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines defined by war and courage,” Trump said in a Truth Social article shortly after hosting Zelensky and his team for more than two hours of talks. “They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!”

Later, shortly after arriving in Florida, where he is spending the weekend, Trump urged both sides to “stop the war immediately” and suggested that Moscow would keep the territory taken from kyiv.

“You go along the battle line wherever it is, otherwise it’s too complicated,” Trump told reporters. “You stop at the battle line and both sides need to go home, get to their families, stop the killing, and that should be it.”

These comments represent a further shift in Trump’s stance on the war. In recent weeks, he has become increasingly impatient with Russian President Vladimir Putin and more willing to help Ukraine win the war.

After meeting with Zelensky in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. Annual General Assembly last month, Trump even said he believed the Ukrainians could regain all the territory they had lost to Russia since Putin launched the February 2022 invasion. This is a sea change for Trump, who had previously insisted that kyiv should concede the lost lands for the benefit of Russia to end the war.

Zelensky, after Friday’s meeting, said it was time to reach a ceasefire and negotiations. He avoided directly answering a question about whether Trump pushed Ukraine to cede its land.

“The president is right, we need to stop where we are and then talk,” Zelenskyy said when asked by reporters about Trump’s social media post, which he had not seen.

Another change of tone

Trump’s tone on the war changed after he had a lengthy phone call with Putin on Thursday and announced that he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks.

The president also told Zelensky on Friday that he opposed the sale of long-range Tomahawk missiles, weapons that the Ukrainians say could be a game-changer in helping Putin to the negotiating table.

Zelensky, at the start of negotiations at the White House, said he had a “proposal” that Ukraine could supply the United States with its advanced drones, while Washington would sell kyiv the Tomahawk cruise missiles.

But Trump said he was reluctant to tap the U.S. supply, a turnaround after suggesting for days that he was seriously considering sending missiles to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion.

“I also have an obligation to make sure our country is fully supplied, because you never know what’s going to happen in war or peace,” Trump said. “We’d much rather they didn’t need Tomahawks. To be honest, we’d much rather the war be over.”

In an interview with Kristen Welker of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Zelenskyy suggested the door was not closed.

“It’s good that President Trump didn’t say ‘no,’ but for today, he didn’t say ‘yes,'” he said.

Zelensky also said that “we need Tomahawks” because “it is very difficult to operate only with Ukrainian drones.”

Trump’s latest speeches about the Tomahawks have certainly disappointed the Ukrainians. In recent days, Trump has expressed willingness to sell the Tomahawks to Ukraine, even as Putin has warned that such a move would further strain U.S.-Russian relations.

Why the Tomahawks?

But after Thursday’s call with Putin, Trump began downplaying the chances that Ukraine would obtain the missiles, which have a range of about 995 miles (1,600 kilometers).

Zelensky was seeking the Tomahawks, which would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target key military sites, energy facilities and critical infrastructure. Zelenskyy argued that the possibility of such strikes would help Putin take Trump’s calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.

Putin warned Trump during the call that providing kyiv with Tomahawks “will not change the situation on the battlefield, but will cause substantial damage to relations between our countries,” according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser.

It was the fifth face-to-face meeting between Trump and Zelensky since the Republican returned to power in January.

The president said Friday that it was “to be determined” whether Zelensky would be involved in the upcoming talks in Hungary – suggesting that a “double meeting” with the leaders of the warring countries was likely the most feasible option for productive negotiations.

“These two leaders don’t like each other and we want to make it comfortable for everyone,” Trump added.

But Zelensky told reporters that animosity toward Putin “is not about feelings.”

“They attacked us, so they are an enemy for us. They have no intention of stopping,” Zelensky added. “So they are an enemy. It’s not just about hating someone else. Although, without a doubt, we hate the enemy. Without a doubt.”

Trump, looking back on his 2024 campaign, insisted he would quickly end the war, but his peace efforts appeared to stall following a diplomatic blitz in August, when he held a summit with Putin in Alaska and a White House meeting with Zelensky and his European allies.

Trump emerged from these meetings certain that he was on the right track to arrange direct talks between Zelensky and Putin. But the Russian leader has shown no interest in meeting Zelensky and Moscow has only intensified its bombing of Ukraine.

Asked Friday if he was concerned that Putin would drag him down, Trump acknowledged that was a possibility but expressed confidence in his ability to handle the Russian leader.

“I’ve been played my whole life by the best of them, and I’ve done really well,” Trump said. He added: “I think I’m pretty good at it.”