Vice President JD Vance fired back at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for insinuating that he and elements of the Trump administration are sympathetic to Russian narratives about the bloody war.
In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, Zelensky, 47, recounted the infamous Feb. 28 Oval Office blow-up with President Trump and Vance, 40, and reflected that he felt that the veep was “somehow justifying [Russian tyrant Vladimir] Putin’s actions,” which set him off.
“I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelensky to tell the [American] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians,” Vance told British conservative outlet UnHerd in an interview published Tuesday.
Vance added that Zelensky’s rhetoric was “certainly not productive.”
Trump, 78, has been on a crusade to end the brutal war Russia is waging against its neighbor.
In a sharp departure from the Biden administration’s policies, which steadfastly backed Ukraine, Trump has attempted to position himself as more of a third-party mediator. In doing so, Trump has been critical of Ukraine and decried past multi-billion-dollar military aid packages to the war-torn ally.
Vance has long been one of the most outspoken proponents of this approach. He’s also publicly argued that Ukraine should cede territory to end the conflict, vexing Zelensky.
“I’ve also tried to apply strategic recognition that if you want to end the conflict, you have to try to understand where both the Russians and the Ukrainians see their strategic objectives, Vance explained to UnHerd.
“That doesn’t mean you morally support the Russian cause, or that you support the full-scale invasion, but you do have to try to understand what are their strategic red lines, in the same way that you have to try to understand what the Ukrainians are trying to get out of the conflict.”
Back in February, Zelensky visited the White House to discuss the Trump administration’s effort to end the war and a mineral rights agreement.
Tensions quickly flared after Vance emphasized the need for diplomacy, which prompted Zelensky to rehash all the agreements with Ukraine that Putin had broken over the years. Vance chided him at the time for not saying “thank you,” and Trump warned that he was gambling with “World War III.”
Since then, tensions have thawed between the Trump administration and Ukraine. However, Zelensky reiterated his concerns about US foreign policy in Sunday’s “60 Minutes” interview.
“I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the US. How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war?” Zelensky bemoaned.
Trump later raged against “60 Minutes” over that segment and another one on Greenland.
“That’s a war that should have never been allowed to start, and Biden could have stopped it, and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it,” Trump told reporters Monday.
“Everybody is to blame.”
Zelensky also re-upped his offer for Trump to visit Ukraine.
The interview aired shortly after multiple Russian strikes killed 34 Ukrainians and injured 117 others on Palm Sunday in the eastern city of Sumy. Special envoy Steve Witkoff had met with Putin in Russia on Friday in St. Petersburg before the attack.
Last month, both Russia and Ukraine agreed to a limited 30-day cease-fire on attacks against energy infrastructure. Trump’s team tried to negotiate a full-fledged halt to end the war.
Russia rejected it and is pursuing full control of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, which it currently lacks.
In addition to his skepticism about pronounced military aid to Ukraine, Vance has also been fiercely critical of Europe, arguing that “it’s not good for Europe to be the permanent security vassal of the United States.”
“I don’t think that Europe being more independent is bad for the United States — it’s good for the United States,” he argued to UnHerd.
“I think a lot of European nations were right about our invasion of Iraq,” he added. “And frankly, if the Europeans had been a little more independent, and a little more willing to stand up, then maybe we could have saved the entire world from the strategic disaster that was the American-led invasion of Iraq.”
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