Exclusive | Trump's pro-Ukraine shift a 'strategic move' based on new intel showing Russian battlefield, economic losses
Diana Nerozzi, Caitlin Doornbos
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s dramatic pronouncement Tuesday that Russia is a “paper tiger” is based on new US intelligence that shows the Kremlin is spiraling toward economic ruin and battlefield defeat as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Trump’s insistence in the same statement that Ukraine can regain all the land currently occupied by Russia is the president’s latest “strategic move” to try to bring Russia to the negotiating table, sources inside and outside the White House told The Post Wednesday.
Despite months of administration efforts and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s stated willingness to pursue peace talks, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has shown no interest in any truce — shunning overtures by Washington and Kyiv as his forces continue to strike civilian targets.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social after meeting Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Trump warned that once the Russian people “find out what is really going on with this war” economically, “Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!”
Asked Wednesday whether the message by Trump was a “strategic move aimed at stirring up negotiations,” a White House official responded: “Yes, that is correct.”
“It doesn’t signal any substantive policy change,” affirmed a source close to the administration. “It’s a clear and obvious negotiating tactic to push Russia.”
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https://nypost.com/2025/09/24/world-news/trumps-pro-ukraine-shift-based-on-new-intel-showing-russian-battlefield-economic-losses/
