Moscow has brushed off a shift in tone from Donald Trump, who suggested Ukraine could win back all its territory from Russia, which was a weak “paper tiger” in dire economic trouble.
Trump’s comments, in which he also said Russia had been “fighting aimlessly for three and a half years”, were in contrast to the red-carpet treatment he laid out for Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska last month.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, attributed the comments to the fact Trump had just met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.
In an interview with RBC radio, Peskov said: “Of course, President Trump heard Zelenskyy’s version of events. And apparently at this point, this version is the reason for the assessment we heard.”
Trump has a history of repeating information the last world leader has told him during meetings, and often changes his position later.
Peskov said the Russian army was making gains in Ukraine, albeit slowly. Putin “has repeatedly stated this – we are moving forward very carefully to minimise losses … These are very deliberate actions,” he said.
Peskov dismissed the description of Russia as a “paper tiger”, saying his country was a bear, the national animal. “Russia maintains its resilience. Russia maintains macroeconomic stability,” he said.
In later statements, the Kremlin said the war was not aimless and appeared to attempt to placate Trump by saying the process of restoring relations between Russia and the US was proceeding “much more slowly than desired”.
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On Tuesday, the US president delivered an upbeat assessment of Ukraine’s prospects in the war, claiming Russia was in big economic trouble. It was one of the strongest statements of support he has given to Kyiv in recent months.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”
He said if the Russian public found out what was “really going on with this war”, the Ukrainians could launch a counter-offensive in which they would “take back all the territory occupied by Russia – and, who knows, maybe even go further than that”.
Zelenskyy hailed Trump’s intervention, saying it represented a “big shift” from the US president.
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has had a significant impact on the Russian economy, with the finance ministry on Wednesday proposing raising the rate of value-added tax by two percentage points to 22%.