UN General Assembly: Donald Trump says Ukraine can win back all lands lost to Russia

US President Donald Trump says 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.

Mr 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, is very much an option,” Mr Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

In the post, Mr Trump criticised 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.

Mr Trump said the US will continue to supply weapons to NATO “for NATO to do what they want with them.”

Meanwhile, NATO warned Russia that it would use “all necessary military and non-military tools” to defend itself as it condemned Moscow for violating Estonian airspace in “a pattern of increasingly irresponsible behaviour”.

The warning came after Estonia said on Friday that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated its airspace for 12 minutes before NATO Italian fighter jets escorted them out.

The week before, some 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, prompting NATO jets to shoot some of them down and the alliance to beef up the defence of Europe’s eastern flank.

Mr Trump appeared to come out in favour of a robust NATO response to any future incursions as he spoke to reporters at the United Nations General Assembly.

Asked whether NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that enter their airspace, he told reporters: “Yes, I do.”

The NATO statement followed a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, made up of ambassadors from the alliance’s 32 member countries, which was called after Estonia invoked Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty.

“Russia bears full responsibility for these actions, which are escalatory, risk miscalculation and endanger lives. They must stop,” the council said in a statement.

“Russia should be in no doubt: NATO and Allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions,” the statement said.

“We will continue to respond in the manner, timing, and domain of our choosing.”

The recent incidents have prompted calls from some European politicians and analysts for NATO to shoot down manned Russian fighters that intrude on the alliance’s airspace.

But German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned against such talk.

“Reckless demands to shoot something out of the sky or to send a specific message of strength do not help in this situation. We need to be calm, clear and prudent - and act appropriately,” he told reporters in Berlin after a meeting with his Swedish counterpart.

NATO’s Article 4 states that allies will “consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security” of a member is threatened.

It is only the ninth time in NATO’s 76-year history that the article has been invoked - and two of those occasions have come this month in response to the incidents over Poland and Estonia.

“We are a defensive alliance, yes, but we are not naive. So we see what is happening,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at alliance headquarters in Brussels.

“If it is not intentional, then it is blatantly incompetent. And of course, even if it is incompetence, we still have to defend ourselves.”

Russia said on Monday that Estonia’s assertion that Russian jets violated Estonian airspace was unfounded and accused Tallinn of seeking to ratchet up East-West tensions.