Vice President JD Vance pushed back forcefully on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent remarks made during a 60 Minutes interview, calling them “absurd” and “not productive,” as tensions rise over the future of U.S. support for Ukraine.
Zelensky referenced Vance during his Sunday night appearance on CBS, reflecting on a high-profile Oval Office meeting in February with President Donald Trump and the vice president. The Ukrainian leader described the meeting as deeply concerning, accusing Vance of echoing “Russian narratives” and defending Moscow’s position in the war.
“It seems to me that the vice president is somehow justifying Putin’s actions,” Zelenskyy said in the interview. “There is an aggressor, and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim.”
Zelenskyy’s characterization of the exchange—and of Vance’s posture—set off an immediate response from the vice president, who labeled the Ukrainian president’s commentary as both misleading and diplomatically unhelpful.
In an interview with British outlet UnHerd, Vance struck back:
“I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelenskyy 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 emphasized that his approach has always been about strategic realism, not moral equivocation.
“You can believe, as I do, that Ukrainians are brave people and that Vladimir Putin is a bad guy, without pushing the United States to the brink of nuclear war,” he added, citing his earlier remarks on Fox News from his 2022 Senate campaign.
While acknowledging the brutality of the Russian invasion, Vance stressed that any viable path to peace must include a clear-eyed understanding of both Russia and Ukraine’s strategic aims.
“That doesn’t mean you morally support the Russian cause,” he clarified, “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.”
Vance’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, reinforced the administration’s position in a statement to Fox News Digital, urging Zelenskyy to focus on diplomacy rather than throwing public jabs.
“Instead of mischaracterizing Vice President Vance’s rhetoric, President Zelenskyy should be focused on bringing this conflict to a peaceful conclusion. His comments are counterproductive to the goal of achieving peace for his country,” Van Kirk said.
She also pointed to a consistent record of Vance condemning Russia’s actions, adding that blaming the current administration is misplaced when it was President Biden’s “weakness and incompetence” that created the conditions for the invasion.
The verbal exchange comes at a delicate time for U.S.-Ukraine relations. President Trump has called for a reevaluation of U.S. financial and military commitments to the war-torn country, while Zelensky continues to appeal to Western allies for increased support.
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Time to pull the plug on funding to Ukraine until Zalenski resigns. He isn’t even the ELECTED President. His term ended in May 2024.
Get a change in the administration Ukraine with someone who is reasonable, rational and thinking. Not this former Comedian who is an Obama Admin Puppet.
In my view, Vance is very reckless in his stance against Zelensky. I think he has taken it upon himself to keep the U.S. distant enough that it satisfies Putin. If Zelensky is constantly made to look like the bad guy, it takes the pressure off Putin and creates an alternate enemy for the people to view. In this way, he can dissolve some of the support for Ukraine that is vast in the country, and we’d be willing to punish Ukraine for Russia’s brutal invasion. Maybe he is expected to do this by the Administration, but his criticism of Putin seems almost non-existent. Maybe he, as well as Trump, needs to go to Ukraine and see what Putin has done to the whole place. Maybe then his criticism would move to the correct place…the Kremlin.
Zelensky is toast. I really don’t care about Ukraine. Let them fail now. Too much American time and money wasted on a very ungrateful country and leader. We should have never intervened