CNN
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US Vice President JD Vance said the war in Ukraine is “not going to end any time soon,” just hours after Washington and Kyiv signed a key minerals agreement that has peace in Ukraine among its goals.
Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, Vance poured some cold water on earlier statements from the White House, while also claiming that US President Donald Trump managed to secure “a really big breakthrough” in the peace process.
“It’s going to be up to them (Ukraine and Russia) to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict. It’s not going anywhere. It’s not going to end anytime soon,” Vance told Fox News.
“Of course they (the Ukrainians) are angry that they were invaded, but are we going to continue to lose thousands and thousands of soldiers over a few miles of territory this or that way? I hope both of them come to their senses.”
Trump suggested just last week that Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” after his foreign envoy, Steve Witkoff, spent three hours meeting with Putin at the Kremlin.
Talks to end the war — which Trump previously promised to do within 24 hours of taking office — have largely stalled, despite several top level meetings and at least two direct phone calls between Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow continues to refuse the 30-day ceasefire agreement proposed by the US and agreed by Ukraine. The Kremlin also demands the recognition of the Ukrainian territories it took by force as part of Russia. Such a move would upend decades-long international laws.
At the same time, Russia continues its brutal aggression against Ukraine, bombing cities hundreds of miles away from the frontlines on an almost daily basis.
Vance said that the fact that the talks were happening was itself a victory.
“I really don’t believe that any person, the 8 billion people in the world, I don’t think anybody could have gotten this deal done other than Donald J. Trump. When I say this deal, I mean getting these guys to actually propose a peace settlement,” the vice president told Fox News.
Earlier this week, Putin declared a unilateral three-day ceasefire in Ukraine from May 8 to May 11. In response, the Trump administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated calls for a permanent truce.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to flip-flop between blaming Moscow and blaming Kyiv for the lack of progress.
Last week, Trump slammed Zelensky for his comments that Ukraine wouldn’t recognize Russian control of Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula that was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, calling the remarks “very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia.”
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Yet on Saturday, after speaking to Zelensky privately on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral, Trump questioned whether Putin “maybe… doesn’t want to stop the war.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to walk away from the talks, most recently on Thursday, when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump may need to reassess efforts to broker the peace deal if the US doesn’t see a breakthrough “very soon.”
