Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has slammed US Republican candidate Donald Trump’s VP pick for the 2024 presidential election, J.D. Vance, as having “too radical” views on ending Kiev’s conflict with Moscow.
Zelensky’s comments were published as he arrived in the US, where he is expected to attend the UN General Assembly in New York and meet with President Joe Biden at the White House.
Speaking to The New Yorker, the Ukrainian leader suggested that “Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”
When asked about Trump’s vice presidential pick, Zelensky replied: “He is too radical.”
“His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice,” Zelensky said. “This brings us back to the question of the cost and who shoulders it. The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable.”
“This would be an awful idea, if a person were actually going to carry it out, to make Ukraine shoulder the costs of stopping the war by giving up its territories,” Zelensky said.
He argued that such a concession would not end the fighting, and dismissed the Trump team's promise to end the conflict as “just sloganeering.”
Ohio senator Vance opposes continued US funding of Ukraine and voted against a $61 billion aid bill that Congress passed this year. He has argued that the money sent to Kiev only fuels “the most corrupt leadership and government in Europe,” without ending the conflict.
Washington’s current “policy is ‘throw money at this problem, hope the Ukrainians are able to achieve a military victory’ that even the Ukrainians are saying ‘we can’t achieve,’” Vance told former US Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan in an interview earlier this month.
In 2022, Vance said that he did not “really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” stating that he was more focused on domestic issues like illegal immigration and the fentanyl crisis.
Vance has backed Trump’s claim that he would end the fighting purely through diplomatic means. He has suggested that the settlement could resemble the “current line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine” and include “a demilitarized zone.” He has also argued that Russia should receive a “guarantee of neutrality” from Ukraine, and that Kiev should renounce plans to join NATO.
The Republican senator’s vision is a sharp contrast with the current US administration, which believes that a peace deal with Moscow should be made on Kiev’s terms. Biden’s White House has insisted that the US should support Ukraine with weapons and money for “as long as it takes.”
Zelensky, meanwhile, has maintained that a peaceful solution is only possible if Russia recognizes its 1991 borders. Moscow has repeatedly said that such a demand is completely unacceptable.