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Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Sep. 23, 2025

September 23, 2025 · The White House · 0:06:24

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Trump opened by praising Ukraine’s fight: “We have great respect for the fight that Ukraine is putting up. It’s pretty amazing actually.” President Zelenskyy thanked the President for his personal efforts to stop the war, noted a parallel meeting of the two first ladies about Ukrainian children, and briefed that Ukrainian soldiers had taken 360 square kilometers that month under the program by which NATO countries buy American weapons, as he stated it. He pressed for more sanctions pressure and for European countries to stop buying Russian oil and gas.

In the question period, asked whether NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that enter their airspace, President Trump answered: “Yes, I do.” Asked whether he still trusted President Putin, he said, “I’ll let you know in about a month from now,” and said security guarantees were “a little bit too early” to discuss.

Why it matters

The “Yes, I do” answer on NATO shoot-downs became one of the most quoted lines of UNGA week, and the meeting fixed the administration’s public posture — weapons via NATO purchases, sanctions pressure encouraged, guarantees deferred — at a turning point in the war diplomacy.

Scoreboard watch

This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: the President’s September 23, 2025 statements backing NATO shoot-downs of Russian aircraft in allied airspace and deferring security guarantees — as stated at the meeting, to be checked against subsequent policy.

Sources: The White House, “Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Sep. 23, 2025” (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations and figures as stated by the participants in the broadcast.