U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during a Republican political event about the One Big Beautiful Bill at ALTA Refrigeration in Peachtree City, Georgia, U.S., August 21, 2025. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer
Vice President JD Vance is facing criticism for reshaping the historical record of the past century of wars in a way seen as aiding Vladimir Putin, and for appearing to defend Russia by refusing to denounce the Russian President over the bombing of a U.S. factory in Ukraine.
Speaking to NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday, the Vice President was asked if he was “enraged” when he learned that Russia had “targeted an American company based in Ukraine?”
“I don’t — I’m — I don’t like it, Kristen, but this is a war, and this is why we want to stop the killing,” was Vance’s response, “The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like, a lot of civilians have died. We’ve condemned that stuff from the get-go, and frankly, President Trump has done more to apply pressure and to apply economic leverage to the Russians.”
Some were stunned by Vance’s “this is a war” remark.
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Vance then went on to attack former President Joe Biden’s handling of Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine, while praising President Trump for allegedly ending a half-dozen wars.
Russia is now refusing to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite President Trump’s claim to the contrary, the Vice President also said, “I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict.”
“They’ve actually been willing to be flexible on some of their core demands,” Vance added. “They’ve talked about what would be necessary to end the war.”
Critics disputed Vance’s “significant concessions” claim.
Political science Professor Maria Popova, wrote: “For the umpteenth time: asking for a piece of Ukraine they cannot conquer in return for (maybe) pinky promising not to take another piece they cannot conquer is NOT a concession. Ru[ssia] has not made a single concession. Vance is lying through his teeth. He cannot be this obtuse.”
French civil servant Nicolas Tenzer, a senior expert in international and security issues, responded to Vance’s “concessions” claim: “We knew it from the outset. Full ideological alignment. Vance is cozying up to Putin. Period.”
Later, the Vice President was asked, “If Russia is allowed to keep any of the territory that it illegally seized, what message does that send to China? Does it give China a green light to invade Taiwan?”
Vance insisted (video below) that it’s up to Ukraine if it cedes territory to Russia after being illegally invaded, in an effort to end the war, but then added, “this is how wars ultimately get settled.”
“If you go back to World War II, if you go back to World War I, if you go back to every major conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation,” he claimed.
Critics, including experts on war, corrected the Vice President.
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“This…is not at all how World War II ended,” wrote The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College
professor and an expert on Russia.
“Fact check,” wrote James Robert Carroll, Washington Bureau Chief of the Capital News Service, “World War II ended with the unconditional surrenders of Germany and Japan.”
“And since Vance also mentioned WWI,” Nichols added, “the Treaty of Versailles was drafted by the victors and handed to the already-defeated Germans as an ultimatim (sic).”
“Everybody remembers that seminal moment in WW2,” snarked The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, “with FDR in his wheelchair rolling out the red carpet for Hitler discussing which portions of France he will get in exchange for peace.”
Professor Larry Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, wrote: “In both Europe and the Pacific, Germany and Japan surrendered unconditionally—no negotiation whatsoever—just as the Allies insisted in 1945.”
“People need to stop thinking that Vance didn’t know he’s wrong. He knows. He’s just assuming that Trump voters are too stupid to know better, and judging from the replies around here, he’s making a good bet,” Nichols observed.
Watch the video below or at this link.
JD Vance: "This is how wars ultimately get settled. If you go back to World War 2, if you go back to every major conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation." pic.twitter.com/FB4VJgljG5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 24, 2025
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