Trump Calls Ukraine Deal 'Close' at UN, Warns He Could 'Annihilate' Iran If Talks Fail

Since Russia invaded Ukraine more than four and a half years ago, Presidents have promised breakthroughs that never arrived. President Trump made another one Tuesday at the United Nations, telling reporters after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that "I think we're going to make a deal," and that it would happen "more quickly than people understand."

He didn't say what the deal actually contains.

The meeting happened hours after Russian missiles and drones hit at least four Ukrainian regions overnight, killing five people, according to Newsday. Zelensky told reporters Ukrainian forces had damaged two more Russian oil refineries in response. Front-line positions, meanwhile, haven't moved much.

The Energy Ceasefire Standoff

Both sides are talking past each other on the one concrete idea on the table: an energy ceasefire. Zelensky says Kyiv is "ready for any kind of format" if Russia stops attacking Ukraine's power grid and civilian infrastructure first, according to the Guardian. Trump wants the opposite sequencing, pressing Ukraine to halt its refinery strikes because they're driving up global diesel prices, which he said have "gone up quite a bit."

According to Global Banking and Finance, citing Reuters reporting from Kyiv and New York, there was no discussion at the Trump-Zelensky meeting of Ukraine unilaterally stopping its refinery campaign. Russia hasn't agreed to any ceasefire terms either. Two governments are each waiting for the other to move first.

Trump made nearly the identical claim during the 2024 campaign, promising he could end the war almost immediately once in office. Nearly two years later, the war is still going, and Tuesday's meeting produced no signed agreement, no ceasefire, and no timeline. Zelensky himself hedged, telling reporters he doubts Vladimir Putin is "really ready to end the war."

Putin skipped the UN General Assembly entirely this year. Asked whether Trump, Zelensky and Putin might meet at the G20 gathering in Florida in December, Trump gave no firm answer, according to Newsday.

Patriots Still M.I.A.

Zelensky pressed Trump again for more Patriot air defense interceptors, telling reporters, "They are positive to help us, but I didn't get the very concrete answer." Defense analysts cited by Newsday say the U.S. is dealing with a global Patriot shortage, in part because so many interceptors have already been used defending against Iranian strikes.

Zelensky is set to address the full UN General Assembly Wednesday, where the Guardian reports he plans to push "concrete security proposals and de-escalation measures" and rally support for Ukraine ahead of any actual peace talks. Leaders from Latvia, Romania, Czechia, Estonia and Cyprus were also on the schedule ahead of his remarks.

Trump's Iran Ultimatum

The same UN address where Trump talked up a Ukraine deal also contained a direct threat against Iran. "Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before," Trump asked, "or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly?"

CBS News reports the war with Iran will hit its seven-month mark next week. Trump predicted a deal would come together after the November 3 midterms, arguing Tehran is "waiting to see how I do" in the elections. "What they don't realize is that I'm not running," he said, per Channel NewsAsia.

Trump also said Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff had a "very good" three-hour meeting with Iranian officials on the UN sidelines Tuesday.

He dismissed reports of depleted U.S. munitions, insisting "we have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using." That claim runs directly against a finding the Pentagon's own inspector general released last week, which said the Iran war has caused "strategic inventory shortfalls" in U.S. munitions stocks. Two claims, one from the president and one from his own department's watchdog, don't line up. Neither side has offered a public reconciliation of the numbers.

Trump also cited the U.S. raid that captured Venezuela's leader and his handling of Gaza negotiations as evidence of a broader foreign policy pattern: act first, talk later. Critics, including analysts cited by Channel NewsAsia, argue a Democratic-controlled Congress after November could constrain his leverage on all three fronts. Trump waved that off, betting his base that voters reward the approach rather than punish it.

Three things to watch: Does Zelensky's Wednesday UN speech produce any actual security commitments from allies? Does Russia respond to the energy ceasefire idea at all? Does the Pentagon clarify the gap between the inspector general's shortage warning and the president's public assurances? None of that has happened yet.