President Donald Trump’s declared this week that Russia is a “paper tiger”, reflecting newly surfaced U.S. intelligence suggesting the Kremlin faces deepening economic decline and mounting battlefield losses in Ukraine, the New York Post reported.

The president’s pronouncement — made Tuesday after his address to the United Nations General Assembly — is being characterized inside the administration as a deliberate tactic to squeeze Russian President Vladimir Putin into considering negotiations, even as Moscow continues to resist Western overtures.

In a Truth Social post following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN summit, Trump argued that once Russian citizens “find out what is really going on with this war” economically, Ukraine would not only be able to reclaim its occupied territory but could “maybe even go further than that.”

Asked Wednesday if the president’s words were a “strategic move aimed at stirring up negotiations,” a senior White House official replied: “Yes, that is correct.” Another source close to the administration added: “It doesn’t signal any substantive policy change. It’s a clear and obvious negotiating tactic to push Russia.”

Zelensky and his top adviser Andriy Yermak both said that Trump is increasingly recognizing the limits of Moscow’s military power. “It’s our job … to speak, to consult, to repeat, to give the evidence, to exchange the information,” Yermak told reporters Tuesday. Zelensky went further, saying Putin’s claims of battlefield dominance were nothing more than “fairy tales.”

According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russia has advanced just 1,910 square kilometers inside Ukraine since May — while sustaining more than 130,000 killed and wounded, an “extremely heavy casualty rate.”

The Kremlin is also reeling from shrinking oil revenues and depleted reserves. Russian export earnings fell to $13.5 billion in August, down from $14.4 billion in July, according to the International Energy Agency. Overall, oil export revenue for the first eight months of 2025 was down 16 percent from the same period a year earlier.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Finance Ministry proposed raising the value-added tax from 20 percent to 22 percent and slashed its economic growth forecast to 1 percent — a sharp drop from 4.3 percent in 2024. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries have triggered gas shortages inside Russia.

“As his economy becomes pressurized, [Putin] has to pick between paying for the war machine or paying for the people who have given him a solid majority in his country,” Mark Montgomery, a retired Navy rear admiral and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said.

Trump’s rhetoric was reinforced by senior administration officials. “The president is making it very clear that Russia is in a very weak position,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday night. “They are a massive country with a massive military. They are a war economy. But it’s been three-and-a-half years and look at how Ukraine has been able to defend itself.”

Vice President JD Vance echoed the point Wednesday: “It’s not a shift in position. It’s an acknowledgement of the reality on the ground.”

For now, however, Putin has shown no sign of entertaining peace talks — even as Trump doubles down on his effort to project U.S. confidence in Ukraine’s ability to prevail.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)