During a recent meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance commented that Russian President Vladimir Putin made “significant concessions” regarding the war in Ukraine. This discussion took place on NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” where Vance elaborated on the compromises allegedly made by Putin during their talks in Alaska.
“I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three-and-a-half years of this conflict,” Vance said.
He noted, “They’ve recognized that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
When asked by Welker whether he felt “enraged” by a recent Russian attack on an electronics factory owned by a U.S. company, Vance responded thoughtfully.
“I don’t like it. But this is a war, and this is why we want to stop the killing. The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like. A lot of civilians have died. We’ve condemned that from the start, and frankly, President Trump has done more to apply economic pressure on the Russians than Joe Biden did for three-and-a-half years, where he mostly just talked without any real action to halt the violence. So when you ask what I’m enraged by? It’s the continuation of war,” Vance stated.
Moreover, Vance suggested that Ukraine might need to concede some territory it lost during the conflict to facilitate peace.
“This is how wars ultimately get settled. If you look back at historical conflicts, they all end with some kind of negotiation,” he added.
Later in the interview, Welker inquired about sanctions, particularly following a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who claimed sanctions wouldn’t compel Putin to agree to a ceasefire.
“No, sanctions aren’t off the table. But we’ll assess these on a case-by-case basis. What we need to evaluate is what could indeed exert meaningful pressure and bring the Russians to negotiate. It seems clear that sanctions alone won’t result in a ceasefire,” Vance responded.
“They don’t want a ceasefire for complicated reasons. We’ve advocated for one, but we can’t dictate Russia’s actions. If we could, the war would’ve ended months ago. We believe there are still many options available for the president to apply pressure to resolve this conflict, and that’s our focus.”
Vance’s remarks followed a previous interview on the same program with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who indicated that Russia is open to security guarantees from a coalition including China, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States.
Lavrov also mentioned that Moscow seeks the annexation of the eastern Donbas region, including the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, as part of any peace deal.
On the matter of Ukrainian security guarantees, Vance clarified, “The president has made it clear. There won’t be U.S. boots on the ground in Ukraine. However, we will continue to be proactive in ensuring that Ukraine has the security assurances and confidence needed to end the conflict and for Russia to feel able to also bring it to a close.”
“There will be ups and downs in the negotiations,” Vance added. “Sometimes we feel progress is made with the Russians, and sometimes, as the president has articulated, it’s frustrating. We’ll persist in our efforts to find a resolution. It’s unlikely to happen quickly, but I believe we’ll continue to advance. Ultimately, whether the violence ceases hinges on whether the Russians and Ukrainians can discover some compromise.”
