There is no such thing as a paper bear, says Kremlinpublished at 12:35 BST 24 September

12:35 BST 24 September

Steve Rosenberg
Russia editor, in Moscow

Image source, Getty Images

To Donald Trump’s comments, a diplomatic response from Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says President Putin “valued President Trump’s political will to seek a peace settlement in Ukraine".

He earlier told reporters it was a “mistake” to believe Ukraine could win back territory, and denies Russia was in big economic trouble.

“Russia’s economy,” he says, "completely meets the needs of the Russian army.”

Earlier, President Trump said Nato countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that enter their airspace.

Peskov claims that accusations against Moscow of airspace violations are “groundless.”

He also rejects President Trump’s description of Russia as a paper tiger.

“[Russia] is more associated with a bear,” he says. “And there is no such thing as a paper bear.”

Volodymyr Zelensky is now “in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form”, Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday.

As we've noted, this marked a major shift in the US president's rhetoric on any peace process with Russia.

Previously, he's insisted that Ukraine would need to give up some land. Here's a look back at what he's said:

In February, during his notorious Oval Office showdown with the Ukrainian president, Trump told Zelensky: “You’re not winning this,” adding: “You don’t have the cards”.

In March, the US president suggested a contract was being drawn up, which would include “dividing up the lands” between Russia and Ukraine.

Before meeting Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska in August, Trump told reporters: “You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three-and-a-half years … It's very complicated. But we're going to get some [territory] back, and we're going to get some switched. There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both”.

He later said again that there would be some "land swapping", adding that Russia has "taken some very prime territory".

Days later, ahead of White House talks with Zelensky, Trump said the parties “need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact - that means the war zone … to look at them and negotiating positions”.

Trump's Ukraine claims are pie in the skypublished at 12:21 BST 24 September

12:21 BST 24 September

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

President Donald Trump’s assertion that Kyiv can “win all of Ukraine back in its original form” is – barring any dramatic change of fortunes – pie in the sky.

The Russian army has hundreds of thousands of troops deployed inside Ukraine, spread across the five oblasts it occupies, in all or in part.

Ukraine’s big chance to push them back and drive through to the Sea of Azov came in the wake of its successes in late 2022.

But the much-heralded counter-offensive of summer 2023 failed spectacularly. Why? Because by the time Ukraine was ready and its Western-supplied main battle tanks like Britain’s Challenger 2, Germany’s Leopards and the US M1 Abrams were deployed towards the front it was too late.

Russia’s General Sergey Surovikin had constructed the densest, most impenetrable minefield of modern times, covered by drones and pre-positioned artillery, right across Ukraine’s intended path in Zaporizhzhia oblast.

There are only two ways Trump’s prediction could possibly come true.

One is if Nato committed itself to the fight, risking a full-scale war with Russia. The other is if something unforeseen on Russia’s side – such as a coup – triggered a collapse of the Russian army.

At time of writing, there is no sign of that happening.

Image source, Reuters

After railing against the UN, green policies and Europe during a speech yesterday, President Donald Trump suddenly performed an extraordinary 180-degree turn on one of his core foreign policies.

Kyiv can "win all of Ukraine back in its original form", he wrote on his Truth Social platform, after meeting Ukraine's Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) meeting.

"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. Why not?"

Ukraine's President has characterised Trump's intervention as a "big shift". Indeed, it was just over a month ago that Trump was saying that any peace process with Russia would likely involve "some swapping of territories".

But what exactly would it take for Ukraine to reclaim its lost borders?

Trump made no reference to US involvement and, as the BBC's James Landale notes, all evidence suggests this would make it practically impossible.

Shortly after 14:00 BST (09:00 BST), Zelensky will address UNGA. Stay with us for updates on all the key lines and analysis from our correspondents in New York, Kyiv and around the world.

Image source, EPA

Trump has made quite the splash at the UN, as many anticipated he would. Here's how the day unfolded.

Trump's feud with UN escalates: Even Trump's entrance to the building drew attention, after a UN escalator stopped working moments after the president stepped onto it, which was then followed by his teleprompter not working for his speech.

Trump used his address to the UN to chastise the institution, repeating his claim to have ended seven wars and claiming the world body failed to help him do so.

A climate of change: In his first speech to the UN's General Assembly in New York since retaking the White House, Trump emphasised the change in America's approach under his leadership, saying it was time to end the "failed experiment of open borders".

He also called climate change the "greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world".

A significant shift on Ukraine: But it was remarks posted on social media after his speech and following a meeting with Ukraine's President Zelensky that caught many off guard.

"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," Trump said, going on to call Russia a "paper tiger" - a considerable shift in tone from the US president.

And when asked earlier by a reporter if he if Nato member states should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace, Trump said: "Yes I do."

We're pausing our live coverage for now, but will resume tomorrow, when we will hear speeches from leaders including Zelensky of Ukraine and the President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian.

In the meantime, you can read more on the UN summit:

• Kyiv can win all of Ukraine back from Russia, Trump says
• Trump criticises countries' migration and climate policies in scathing UN speech
• James Landale: Six years ago Trump's UN audience laughed, this year they were silent

Escalator 'accidentally turned off' as Trump got on - UN source claimspublished at 22:52 BST 23 September

22:52 BST 23 September

By Joshua Cheetham

Earlier today, President Trump opened his speech to the UN General Assembly by complaining that his teleprompter wasn't working and that an escalator in the building had malfunctioned while he was on it.

In a post on X, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "if someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately".

We've spoken to an official at the UN who says their understanding was that someone ran ahead of President Trump and accidentally turned off the escalator.

They believed it may have been his photographer or another member of staff, because no-one from the UN would have been running ahead of the president.

We looked at footage of the escalator just before the incident. Two men are visible ahead of Trump on the escalator - one of them is facing the president with a camera but we can't tell from the footage if they were responsible.

On the teleprompter fault, the official - who wanted to remain anonymous - said that the White House team was operating it at the time, bringing their own laptops and plugging them into the UN's teleprompter system.

They said it was "understandable" the White House would operate like this, as they would know the speed at which to run the text for the president.

We can't independently verify either claim, and have asked the White House for comment.

Image source, Getty Images

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a meeting on Gaza between President Trump and the leaders of several Arab and Muslim-majority countries was "very fruitful".

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Erdogan says he was "pleased" with the discussion's outcome, and that a joint declaration would soon be published. He did not elaborate further on the details.

Turkey, which is a Nato member, has harshly criticised Israel's bombardment of Gaza and has repeatedly called it a genocide.

Ankara has called for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave, and urged the international community to take forceful measures against Israel.

Image source, Reuters

We've been bringing you key lines from Trump's spate of bilateral meetings with world leaders in New York today - including with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Calling it a "good meeting", von der Leyen says their discussion focused on "Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine" and that the two of them agree on "the need to cut Russia's revenues from fossil fuels".

Europe is trying to do this with their new sanctions package, she says in the statement on X, vowing that Europe "will have turned the page" for good on Russian fossil fuels by 2027.

The EU chief adds that the Kremlin's "regular incursions into European airspace" and the situation in the Middle East were also discussed.

"We both agree that the suffering of civilians should end" she says, and reiterates Europe's call for a two-state solution.

Image source, Reuters

As we have been reporting, President Trump said that Ukraine "is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form" - a major change in his stance on Ukraine.

But there has been little change on the ground in Ukraine, where the fighting continues.

Russian attacks continue

• A morning attack on Monday 22 September over Ukraine's south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least three people
• Three days prior, Ukraine's air force says Moscow launched 619 drones and missiles across Ukraine overnight, killing at least three people and injuring 30

Russia entering Nato skies

• Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered the Estonia "without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes" on the morning of 19 September
• Romania said a Russian drone breached its airspace on 13 September
• On 10 September, Poland said it had shot down at least three Russian drones which had entered its airspace.

Plans for a Zelensky - Putin summit seem to be stalling

• Days after Donald Trump expressed confidence that such a meeting could take place within weeks, the ambitious plans seem to be further diminishing - reporter Laura Gozzi writes

If you're just joining us, we're still digesting a new statement from Trump suggesting that Ukraine can win back all of its territory in its war against Russia.

Here's what the US president says:

• "Ukraine... is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form" - this is a significant change from statements made by Trump throughout the year that Ukraine, when he suggestion the country didn't "have the cards"
• With financial support from Europe and Nato, Ukraine could win back its "original borders" - coming directly after a meeting with Zelensky, the timing of Trump's statement is significant, writes our reporter in New York Bernd Debusmann Jr
• Russia is a "paper tiger" and not a "real military power", but despite seemingly moving towards a more critical position on Russia, our diplomatic correspondent James Landale warns that we should always treat Trump's words with a pinch of salt
• "We will continue to supply weapons to Nato, for Nato to do what they want with them" - this is more than Trump seemed interested in offering at times this year, writes our North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher

Trump's statement that Ukraine could win "all of Ukraine back in its original form" is a "big shift", Zelensky says.

The Ukrainian leader, who is also in New York for the UN summit, tells Sky News Trump's social media post is "very positive".

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from New York

A short while ago, the White House press pool was unexpectedly called into a multilateral meeting behind Trump and several dozen foreign reporters.

As I walked in, I managed to crane my neck over a scrum of reporters and saw Trump at the conference table, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.

From my vantage point, I also saw Jordan's King Abdallah and Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The press was abruptly pulled out of the room. But as we exited through a back corridor, we saw Volodymyr Zelensky walk by with his entourage.

He was on his cell phone, speaking in Ukrainian, and did not stop. We don't know where he was going.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from New York

I'm now standing in a crowded upstairs hallway at the UN, underneath a stone replica of an ancient peace treaty between Hattusilis and Ramses II of Egypt, donated by Turkey in 1970.

Trump just walked past a group of dozens of mostly Arab reporters to enter his multilateral meeting today with the leaders of Arab and Muslim leaders.

"This is a very important meeting," Trump said, directed at nobody in particular.

Just a few minutes later, Zelensky and some of his staff walked by as well, surprising many of the reporters outside. I'm told one of his staff suggested quickly that the meeting is related to the Security Council. It is unclear how long Trump will be at the meeting.

Image source, Reuters

Zelensky has just been speaking to reporters at the United Nations building in New York.

"We understand President Trump is willing to give Ukraine security guarantees after the war is finished," he tells the room.

Pressed on what this would look like, he says: "I don't want to lie, we don't have specific details."

Broaching the possibility of air defences, drones and weapons, the Ukrainian leader says that if his country was given these security guarantees then Putin would "lose the main reason" for his war.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from New York

Just a few short months ago, I stood in the Oval Office and posed a question to Trump: what did he think that the map of Ukraine will look like once the fighting stops?

His answer was pessimistic. He told reporters that he believed that Ukraine's government "isn't going to get" some of its lost territories back.

His Truth Social post is something of a U-turn, and it is unclear what has prompted him to change his assessment. But we do have clues.

For one, it is apparent that the military assessments he is getting - whether from the US, Ukraine, or both - suggest, in his view, that Russia is a "paper tiger" that is unable to sustain the conflict in the long-term.

It may also be that he believes sanctions on Russia and the threat of more sanctions is beginning to bite in the Kremlin.

"Let them get their land back," he said of Ukraine.

The timing is also notable, given that his post came shortly after meeting Zelensky, who said that he would brief Trump on "good news" from the war front. It is possible that swayed him.

It remains unclear, however, whether Ukraine can successfully take back that territory without significantly more US and Nato support.

Even if it gets that, retrieving that territory would likely be a long and costly affair, contributing further to the bloodshed that Trump says he hopes to stop.

On the other hand, Trump throughout the course of the day has not provided details on how any negotiated settlement might actually play out in the near-term.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. Over the past year, its forces have slowly expanded the amount of territory they control.

This territory is mostly in the eastern part of Ukraine, where Moscow's war machine has been churning mile by mile through the open fields of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions - known together as Donbas.

Also in Russia's sights are two more regions to the west - Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. It held referendums to try to annex them shortly after the invasion in 2022, but has never had them under full control.

Since its annexation in 2014, Crimea - a peninsula out of the south of Ukraine - has also been under Russian military control. It is still internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

• Read our full explainer of the Ukraine war in maps

Image source, Getty Images

As Donald Trump's meetings in New York continue, we've just seen the US president sit down for a short chat with France's Emmanuel Macron.

Macron yesterday announced that France is recognising a state of Palestine, and much of the pair's sit-down revolved around finding a solution to the crisis in Gaza.

To that end, Trump told reporters that he has a meeting with leaders in the region later today, saying: "We could have an outcome very quickly."

The meeting with Macron came shortly after Trump suggested that Ukraine could win back all of its territory in the fight against Russia.

The US president doubled down on his social media post, saying: "I feel that way, I really do. Let them get their land back."

Trump says Ukraine could win for first time - but treat it with a pinch of saltpublished at 20:41 BST 23 September

20:41 BST 23 September

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Diplomats say Donald Trump is on a journey, one that is leading him towards a position more critical of Russia.

They point to his failure to shift President Putin’s thinking during their summit in Alaska.

Since then he’s hinted that he might impose more tariffs on India and China to try to deter them from buying cheap Russian energy, just so long as Europe does likewise.

But this latest post is significant because Trump asserts for the first time Ukraine could be in a position to win back all of its territory.

His dismissal of Russia as a “paper tiger” and not a “real military power” will hurt President Putin, who is sensitive to any suggestion his country is not a global player.

But one should always treat Trump’s words with a pinch of salt. He is being optimistic only moments after meeting President Zelensky at the UN.

And he says Ukraine can win back territory with EU/ Nato support; there is no mention of the US being involved.

All the evidence of the last few years is that this is a war of slow attrition and Ukraine would not retake land from Russia without massive US military support.

As we've been reporting, Donald Trump has just said Ukraine "is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form". It's quite a diversion from his previous comments on the matter of Ukraine's territory.

Yet it was just over a month ago that Trump was saying that any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would involve "some swapping of territories".

Ahead of his summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he had said that "Russia is moving forward, advancing, while Ukraine is losing".

In February, during their notorious Oval Office showdown, the US president told Zelensky to be "thankful". He told the Ukrainian leader: "You're not winning this... you don't have the cards".

Trump makes remarkable about-face on Ukrainepublished at 20:25 BST 23 September

20:25 BST 23 September

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Image source, Reuters

No, Donald Trump’s Truth Social account did not get hacked.

You might be forgiven if that was your first thought after the US president posted that he now believes Ukraine is fully capable of winning back all of its lost territory in its war against Russian "with time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, Nato".

"Why not," he asks.

Trump's statement represents a remarkable about-face after he spent most of the year insisting that Ukraine's situation was dire – that the nation's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, just didn’t have "the cards" to prevail against a larger, more populous nation in a war of attrition.

Unpredictability has long been one of Trump's foreign policy trademarks, and perhaps this latest move is an attempt to shake up peace negotiations that have been stagnant for more than a month after Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin during their summit in Alaska.

The most notable portion of Trump's post may be the way it ended – with an assurance that the US would continue to sell arms to Nato that it could then pass along to Ukraine.

It’s not the seemingly near open-ended commitment to the war effort that the Biden administration provided, but it's more than Trump seemed interested in offering at times this year.