Vice President JD Vance spoke on his desire to see the end of the Russia-Ukraine war during remarks to troops in England on Wednesday.
While he kept his speech short, Vance mentioned the desire both he and President Donald Trump have to see the conflict finally come to a conclusion.
“I just talked to [Trump] right before I came on the stage, and he said very simply that we are going to make it our mission as an administration to bring peace to Europe once again,” Vance said to U.S. troops at the Royal Air Force Base in Fairford, England, a country where the vice president has spent the last several days.
A former Marine, Vance mentioned Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, hoping it would “achieve an end to this terrible war” and thanking the troops for making that a possibility.
“I want to say from all of us back home in the United States, for all the people that you serve with, that you fight for, you make it possible to live the American dream of peace and prosperity,” Vance said. “We are proud of you.”
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Ahead of Vance’s remarks, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte wrote that he’d been on a call with Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and other European leaders to discuss the Alaska meeting. Rutte praised Trump’s leadership and coordination with allies, adding, “The ball is now in Putin’s court.”
Before the speech, Vance participated in calls regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, saying, “Just in the last, actually, hour, I had a call with about 30 European leaders.”
He did not get into further specifics, instead focusing his speech, which lasted about eight minutes, on praising the troops and the special relationship between the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
“Every time a great victory is won for freedom and for peace and for prosperity, it is almost always the Brits and the Americans that do it together,” he said. “We win every single time we go to war together.”
