Vice President JD Vance said the United States could “walk away” if Russia and Ukraine don’t agree to a proposal to end the Russian invasion.
“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes, or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance told reporters after visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.
“We have engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy, of on-the-ground work,” Vance continued. “We’ve really tried to understand things from the perspective of both the Ukrainians and the Russians. What do Ukrainians care the most about? What do the Russians care the most about? And I think that we’ve put together a very fair proposal.”
Vance, long considered a Ukraine skeptic, was part of the Oval Office blowup between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump in February. Like Trump, he has stressed his desire to see the conflict end rather than have the U.S. support the Ukrainians with missiles and other defense systems.
His words echo a statement made last week by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the U.S. could “move on” from a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there aren’t legitimate signs of progress in the near future. Rubio’s warning came after he met with Ukrainian and European officials in Paris. He was scheduled to attend peace talks in London, but is now sending Keith Kellogg in his place.
Trump promised on the 2024 campaign trail to end the war in Ukraine, saying repeatedly that it would never have started if he were president rather than Joe Biden. But making that vision a reality has been difficult, with Trump expressing frustration at various times both with Zelensky and with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But Trump remains hopeful that a deal can be reached, saying he thinks a minerals deal with Ukraine could be signed soon, which the Trump administration views as a de facto security agreement because it would give the U.S. a financial stake in Ukraine’s stability.
Vance echoed that sentiment in his remarks in India.
“We’re going to see if the Europeans, the Russians, and the Ukrainians are ultimately able to get this thing over the finish line,” Vance said. “I feel pretty optimistic about it.”
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He stressed that nothing was imminent while remaining hopeful that an agreement could be reached.
“I think everybody has been negotiating in good faith, but it’s now time to take, if not the final step, one of the final steps,” Vance said. “Which is, at a broad level, the party saying we’re going to stop the killing, we’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today, and we’re going to actually put in place the kind of long-term diplomatic settlement that hopefully will lead to long-term peace.”
