Vice President J.D. Vance warned Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to keep his mouth shut about his disagreements with U.S. President Donald Trump as he considers plans to end Russia's invasion.
The vice president gave an interview to British right-wing influencer Raheem Kassam, editor-in-chief of The National Pulse, and urged Zelensky, whom he met with last week, not to publicly criticize Trump as the U.S. and Russia draw up plans for Ukraine — without that beleaguered nation's representatives being present.
“Zelensky is getting really bad advice, and I don’t know from whom,” Vance told the associate of Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage. “He’s not dealing with Joe Biden and the Biden administration anymore. He’s dealing with Donald Trump and the Trump administration.”
Trump had demanded exclusive rights "in perpetuity" over Ukraine's rare earth minerals, oil and gas resources and infrastructure in exchange for ending Russia's invasion, and he then blamed Zelensky for starting the war nearly three years ago after that deal was rejected — prompting that nation's president to accuse him of "living in this disinformation bubble."
“The idea that he’s going to litigate his disagreements with the president in the public square — I mean, you know the president very well, obviously, I know the president very well," Vance said. "This is not a good way to deal with President Trump. Of course, the Ukrainians are going to have their perspective. The way to surface that is in a private discussion with American diplomats."
"He’s attacking the only reason this country exists, publicly, right now, and it’s disgraceful," added Vance, who was interviewed in Washington, D.C. "And it’s not something that is going to move the president of the United States. In fact, it’s going to have the opposite effect.”
Vance stated that official U.S. policy called for elections in Ukraine, which Russia has also demanded since Zelensky's term ended last year without one due to martial law. The vice president insisted that he respect the outcome no matter what.
“Certainly, that would give him the strongest position, Raheem,” Vance said, "and I think that it’s a little rich for some of our European friends to attack Donald Trump for suggesting that Ukraine should have elections when they say that this is a war for democracy.
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"How can you attack elections when your entire framing for the war in Ukraine is that it’s a war for democracy? I just think it’s ridiculous, and, of course, the United States had a civil war. We had an election in, of course, at the, at the end of as scheduled. You know, Churchill found out that he lost. As I understand it, he found out that he lost the British election at Potsdam.”
Trump believes the war must end, Vance said, and he said the U.S. president's own election win gave him the authority to decide the terms.
“The president won the election, he won it convincingly, and he’s made clear that American policy is to stop the killing and bring the war to a close,” Vance said. “Now, I talked to the president this morning, actually, and he has an incredible amount of sympathy and admiration for the people of Ukraine. He wants the killing to stop because he doesn’t want innocent Ukrainians to keep losing their lives.
"So I think he very much thinks about this from the perspective, not just, of course, of his obligations to the United States, but also he just – he wants the brutality and the killing to stop.”
“He has said the goal of administration policy is to end the conflict," Vance said, "so now, you know that has to happen, right? Zelensky has to take that seriously, our European allies have to take that seriously. That is the goal of administration policy. You’re not going to move the president away from that goal. You’re not going to change his mind, certainly not by attacking him publicly in the media.”
