U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday evening that the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine is far from over and that it’s now up to Russia and Ukraine to end the fighting with Washington mulling a step back from peace talks.
“It’s going to be up to them [Russia and Ukraine] to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict,” Vance said during an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier.
“It’s not going anywhere, Bret. It’s not going to end anytime soon,” he added.
Vance’s comments came just a few hours after Washington signed a deal with Kyiv to share the profits of Ukraine’s mineral resources in exchange for reconstruction assistance from the U.S.
Despite limited American success so far in halting hostilities more than three years after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion, Vance also praised U.S. President Donald Trump as the only person who could bring about a cooling of tensions between Moscow and Kyiv.
“I don’t think anybody could have gotten this deal done, other than Donald J. Trump. And when I say this deal, I mean, getting these guys to actually propose a peace settlement,” Vance said.
In a separate interview with Fox News on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there needed to be a “real breakthrough” in the conflict soon, otherwise Trump would scale back his efforts to end the war.
“I think the president is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this,” Rubio said.
On Monday, Putin announced a temporary three-day ceasefire starting on May 8 to mark the end of World War II. In response, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for the ceasefire to last at least 30 days.
Fighting has continued unabated in the meantime. On Friday, a Russian drone strike injured 29 people in Zaporizhzhia. On Thursday, Russia accused Ukraine of a deadly drone attack on a market in Russian-occupied territory — Kyiv denied that claim, stating that the strike only targeted military personnel.
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