The Big Story 

President Trump’s abrupt shift on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine could end is exposing his newly increased frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

© UPI Photo

Trump’s sudden determination on Tuesday that Ukraine could win back all of its land — and perhaps more — came after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations, leaving Zelensky pleased and surprised.

Some GOP foreign policy hawks signaled that they are all in on the president’s latest posture and argued that it could change the course of the war.

But they also cautioned the White House would need to back up Trump’s tough talk with action.

“Reality has been unmistakable: passivity in the face of aggression will not stop Putin. Self-imposed constraints will only delay the peace the president rightly seeks,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), one of the foremost GOP Ukraine hawks in Congress, said in a statement Wednesday. He called on all in the administration to back Ukraine or risk “undermining President Trump’s efforts to end the war.”

“The world is watching to see if President Trump’s administration translates his rhetoric into action,” McConnell added.

Trump’s Tuesday social media post marked the latest shift in his approach to Putin after coming into office touting his relationship with the Russian leader and vowing to use it to quickly end the war. The following months were marked by both an explosive Oval Office meeting with Zelensky and evidence of increasing frustration with Moscow.

Trump hosted Putin in Alaska in August for a historic summit, rolling out the red carpet and having Putin ride in the presidential limousine from the tarmac in Anchorage to the meeting site. The president had billed the meeting as a discussion on swapping territories as part of potential peace talks with Ukraine, but the two did not reach a deal.

Days later, Trump and European allies hosted Zelensky at the White House to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.

Throughout the war, however, Trump has remained consistent in signaling that any deal would need to include Ukraine ceding territory to Russia, while Zelensky insisted doing so was a nonstarter.

This week, Trump’s tune changed. The president affirmed Ukraine’s ability to “fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form” in a Tuesday post on Truth Social while comparing Russia’s war advancements to that of a “paper tiger.”

When asked on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” about the shift for Trump, Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said, “I think you’re seeing the president’s frustration and disappointment, frankly, with Putin.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” said Trump has “most recently … been incredibly frustrated” with Putin, who “continues to talk nice and then we wake up every morning, and in the West Wing we’re receiving reports about how Russia bombed Ukraine, and they continue to kill innocent civilians.”

Senate GOP allies view the latest effort as one to heap pressure on Russia in a bid to turn the tide in the fighting to bring the war to a conclusion.

Read the full report at TheHill.com.

Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.

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