Trump and Zelenskyy meet at the UN as Ukraine presses for US help against Russia

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met President Donald Trump on Tuesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York as he seeks additional U.S. help in defending his country from Russia's onslaught of missiles, drones and bombs.

The two presidents, who have had strained ties in previous sitdowns, greeted each other warmly on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders.

“We have great respect for the fight that Ukraine is putting up,” Trump told Zelenskyy, who replied that he had “good news” from the battlefield.

“We will speak of how to finish the war and security guarantees,” Zelenskyy said, thanking the U.S. leader for the meeting and for his “personal efforts to stop this war.”

As the fighting rages on, Trump said the “biggest progress” toward ending the conflict “is that the Russian economy is terrible right now.” Zelenskyy said Ukraine agreed with Trump's call for European nations to further halt imports of Russian oil and natural gas.

Trump says the war was ‘supposed to be a quick little skirmish’

In his speech to the General Assembly earlier Tuesday, Trump said the war in Ukraine was making Russia “look bad” because it was "supposed to be a quick little skirmish.”

“It shows you what leadership is, what bad leadership can do to a country," he said. "The only question now is how many lives will be needlessly lost on both sides.”

With his troops under strain on the front line after more than three years of fighting Russia’s bigger invading army, Zelenskyy was meeting world leaders in New York and was due to speak at a special U.N. Security Council session on Ukraine.

Peace efforts set in motion by Trump since he returned to office in January appear to have stalled. Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Zelenskyy and key European leaders took place more than a month ago, but the war has continued unabated.

Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine.

Push for sanctions and cutting off Russian oil

European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.

Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls for Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.

Before meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump held talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said Europe would be imposing more sanctions and tariffs on Russia and that the bloc would be further reducing its imports of Russian energy.

European leaders have supported Zelenskyy’s diplomatic efforts, with some alarmed by the possibility that the war could spread beyond Ukraine as they are facing what they have called Russian provocations.

NATO allies will hold formal consultations at Estonia’s request on Tuesday, after the Baltic country said that three Russian fighter jets entered its airspace last week without authorization.

Trump said he would back NATO countries that choose to shoot down intruding Russian planes but said direct U.S. involvement would depend on the circumstances.

New strikes in Ukraine as toll of war grows

Meanwhile, the full-scale war, which began on Feb. 24, 2022, continues to take a heavy toll on Ukrainian civilians.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said this month that Ukrainian civilian casualties increased by 40% in the first eight months of this year compared with 2024, as Russia escalated its long-range missile and localized drone strikes.

Also, a U.N. Human Rights Office report released Tuesday described the dire situation of thousands of civilians detained by Russia in areas of Ukraine it has captured.

“Russian authorities have subjected Ukrainian civilian detainees in occupied territory to torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, in a widespread and systematic manner,” the report said.

Russian aircraft dropped five glide bombs on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, killing a man, regional head Ivan Fedorov said Tuesday. In the Odesa region of southern Ukraine, Russian ballistic missiles struck the town center of Tatarbunary, killing a woman, regional head Oleh Kiper said.

Overall, Russian forces launched three Iskander ballistic missiles and 115 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. It said 103 drones were intercepted or jammed, but 12 drones and three missiles reached their targets at six locations.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 40 Ukrainian drones flying toward the Russian capital were shot down between Monday evening and midday Tuesday.

Flights were temporarily halted overnight in and out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, causing delays and cancellations, because of the attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported Tuesday that it intercepted 69 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions and the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

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Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.