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Vance says US door open if Zelensky willing to 'seriously talk peace'

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Vance says US door open if Zelensky willing to 'seriously talk peace'
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during the 61st Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany on Feb. 14, 2025. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

As U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly halted all military aid to Ukraine, Vice President JD Vance once again criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky in a March 3 interview with Fox News, claiming Zelensky has shown a "clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process" — a policy Trump insists reflects the will of the American people.

During the Oval Office meeting on Feb. 28, Zelensky, Trump and Vance held a 45-minute-long press briefing in the Oval Office which ended in a heated argument about American aid to Ukraine, and canceling of the planned signing of the U.S.-Ukraine mineral agreement.

Trump and Vance accused Zelensky of failing to express gratitude for U.S. support and warned that his refusal to make concessions to Putin was a dangerous gamble that could escalate into World War III.

Following the meeting, Trump said that Zelensky "is not ready for peace."

"He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for peace," Trump posted on Truth Social on Feb. 28.

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″(Zelensky) came in, even though he was warned not to, determined to litigate all of that … This was the wrong approach, wrong time in history, and definitely the wrong president to try to do this,” National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on March 1.
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Vance told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "what President Trump has said clearly and consistently is of course (that) the door is open so long as Zelensky is willing to seriously talk peace."  

"You can't come into the Oval Office or anywhere else and refuse to even discuss the details of a peace deal," he said. "This is not going to make anybody happy. The Russians are going to have to give up stuff, the Ukrainians are going to have to give up stuff. You can't come to the Oval Office and say 'give us security guarantees, we won't even engage with you about what we are willing to give up.' That's been the Ukrainian posture."

"Hope is not a strategy. Throwing money and ammunition at a terrible conflict — that is not a strategy," Vance said on the Biden adminstration policy on Ukraine.

The U.S. has provided assistance worth $119.8 billion since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, including $67.1 billion in military aid, $49 billion in financial aid, and $3.6 billion in humanitarian aid, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Following the tense meeting with Trump, Zelensky told Fox News on Feb. 28 that Ukraine is "ready for peace but we need to be in a good position."

"We want peace... that's why I visited President Trump," Zelensky told Fox News, adding that he hopes that Trump would show stronger support for Ukraine rather than positioning himself as a mediator in the war. He emphasized that Russia was the aggressor, having launched the invasion. "I want really him to be more at our side," Zelensky said.

Vance reiterated to Hannity that President Trump will be "the first person to pick up the phone" once Zelensky is ready to talk about peace.

"The president is actually taking a much more realistic perspective in saying this can't go on forever, we can't fund this thing forever, the Ukrainians can't fight forever — so let's bring this thing to a peaceful settlement."

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The ambush by hired hand U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the White House Oval Office at high noon on Feb. 28 made for great theater, more 24-hour TV than diplomacy. At first, it seemed like an absolute disaster for President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine, potentially risking the withdrawal
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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