JD Vance has blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process.” However, the vice president admitted while talking to Fox News host Sean Hannity that he expects Zelenskyy to “get there eventually.” Vance also admitted that what “set Zelenskyy off” during the Oval Office meeting was his remark about engaging in “diplomacy” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I really don’t care what President Zelenskyy says about me or anybody else,” Vance told Hannity. “But he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process that President Trump has said is the policy of the American people and of their president.”
“That’s the real breakdown,” the VP added.
Vance said the meeting was expected to be a “rah rah moment” for Washington and Kyiv, but it “went off the rails.” However, he added that despite the public spat, President Donald Trump is still willing to engage with the Ukrainian side.
“When they’re willing to talk peace I think President Trump will be the first person to pick up the phone,” Vance said.
European leaders ‘doing a disservice to the Ukrainians,’ JD Vance says
Vance also seemed to take issue with the way European leaders have been talking up Zelenskyy, adding that what they are actually doing is a “disservice” to Ukrainians. “I think our European friends, frankly, are really doing a disservice to the Ukrainians because their own populations are saying, ‘We’re not going to fund this war indefinitely,’” Vance said.
He added, “Zelenskyy, he goes to Europe and a lot of our European friends puff him up, They say, you know, ‘You’re a freedom fighter. You need to keep fighting forever.’ Well, fighting forever with what? With whose money? With whose ammunition? and with whose lives? The president is actually taking a much more realistic perspective and saying, ‘This can’t go on forever. We can’t fund this thing forever. The Ukrainians can’t fight forever. So let’s bring this thing to a peaceful settlement’.”
Vance suggested that European leaders actually have a very different view of the war behind closed doors. “When you talk to leaders in private, whether they’re Ukrainian or European, when you talk to people in private, they will tell you this cannot go on forever,” he said. “There aren’t enough Ukrainian lives, there isn’t enough American money, and there isn’t enough ammunition to fund this thing indefinitely.”
“The only realistic pathway to bring this thing to a settlement is President Trump’s pathway. We encourage both President Zelenskyy and President Putin to follow that path,” he added.
Following the Trump-Zelenskyy clash, the US President ordered a pause to all military aid to Ukraine. A Trump administration official stressed that it is “not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause,” Fox News reported.
