“We are now living through the most destructive arms race in history,” Zelenskyy said at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

“Ukraine is just the beginning, and Russian drones are already venturing across Europe. Russian military activities are spreading to other nations, as Putin aims to escalate this war by broadening its scope.”

Zelenskyy’s comments came a day after he met with President Donald Trump, who expressed support for Ukraine’s efforts and criticised Russia.

On Tuesday, Trump expressed the belief that Ukraine could reclaim all territories lost to Russia, marking a notable change from his previous calls for Kyiv to make compromises to resolve the conflict.

Ukrainians cautious after Trump shifts his stance

Ukrainians were cautious on Wednesday in their response to Trump’s surprise pivot on their prospects for defeating Russia’s invasion.

In response, Russian authorities claimed that the situation on the ground indicated Ukraine’s inability to recover the occupied lands and dismissed Trump’s characterization of Russia as a “paper tiger.”

“Russia isn’t a tiger, it’s more associated with a bear,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“There are no paper bears. Russia is a real bear.”

Wary Ukrainians hope for solid US support

While some Ukrainians hope that Trump’s statements will translate into substantial backing from Washington, others remain cautious, wary of the American president’s unpredictable nature.

“We need support from America, especially from Donald Trump, and we hope this will continue in the future — maintaining the same rhetoric, the same approach toward us, toward Ukraine, and the war in Ukraine,” expressed Olha Voronina, a 66-year-old resident of Kyiv.

Volodymyr Cheslavskyi, a 48-year-old soldier recuperating from a war injury, believed Trump was more focused on financial gain than supporting Ukraine, often leaving people uncertain about his true objectives with contradictory remarks.

“He can say different things each time — he supports Ukraine, or he does not support Ukraine,” Cheslavskyi told The Associated Press in St Michael’s Square in the Ukrainian capital.

Anna Khudimova, 43, said she believed her country’s armed forces could prevail on the battlefield against Russia’s bigger army.

“But we cannot do it without the help of NATO, without the support of Europe,” she said.

“If Trump influences the situation, then perhaps this can be realistic.”

Russia has occupied around 20 per cent of Ukraine since it annexed Crimea in 2014. The all-out invasion began in February 2022.

US and Ukraine eye joint weapons production

In comments on Tuesday at the United Nations and on social media, Trump took a swipe at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership, made cutting remarks about Russia’s military prowess and derided the Russian economy’s performance. He also said NATO countries should shoot down Russian warplanes entering their airspace, as happened recently in Estonia.

Trump’s comments were an unanticipated departure from his previous positions on the war, when he was publicly cool, even at times hostile, toward Ukraine and apparently more amenable to Putin.

After taking office in January, Trump reversed the three-year US policy of isolating Russia when he called Putin. He has also ruled out the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO, has said Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would need to negotiate swapping land in return for a peace deal with Moscow, and on social media called Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections”.

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker said Trump’s latest remarks were unexpected but important.

“What remains important to us is not only Trump’s words, but also whether he fulfils the earlier promises regarding decisive sanctions” on Russia, Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, told the AP.

Kremlin says it is protecting Russia’s security

Zelenskyy and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed the UN General Assembly later Wednesday.

Trump said on social media Tuesday: “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”.

Max Bergmann, the Director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said that when he read Trump’s post, his reaction was, “the US is out” and handing off to Europe.

“I feel that it’s the president sort of signing off, like: ‘We’ll keep sort of doing some stuff, but this is basically your problem,'” Bergmann said on the sidelines of a defence conference in Tallinn, Estonia.

Russia’s state television channels cast Trump’s comments as part of his efforts to shift the burden of dealing with the conflict to Europe and encourage it to buy more American weapons.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, challenged Trump’s comment that “Russia has been fighting aimlessly”.