Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that the US is working on getting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky together with President Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for crucial peace talks.
Vance confirmed that the US is negotiating to get the leaders together for the first time in 3.5 years of war after Zelensky and European leaders expressed concerns that the peace talks were moving forward without Kyiv’s involvement.
“One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelensky,” Vance told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“We’re at a point now where we’re trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict,” he added.
The vice president’s remarks come after European leaders backed Trump’s peace efforts, but emphasized the need to include Ukraine in the talks.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, UK PM Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen all agreed that the “path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
“We are convinced that only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed,” the leaders wrote in a joint statement issued on Saturday.
Vance, however, suggested that Zelensky’s presence, if forced, could railroad such peace talks, saying that it would be up to Trump to decide on how best to progress the negotiations.
“I think, fundamentally, the president of the United States has to be the one to kind of bring these two together,” Vance said.
“This is something where the president needs to force President Putin and President Zelensky to really sit down to figure out their differences,” he added.
Vance did not detail when a meeting with the three world leaders could take place, including whether it is likely on Friday, when Trump is scheduled for a historic one-on-one with Putin in Alaska.
The White House has reportedly toyed with the idea of having Zelensky attend the meeting with Putin. But Trump has made it clear publicly that he is willing to meet Putin without Zelensky.
Putin has repeatedly stated that he does not recognize Ukraine’s “anti-Russian” government, slamming Zelensky as an illegitimate leader since presidential elections were suspended in the face of Moscow’s invasion.
Vance emphasized that the goal for the Trump administration remains ending the war.
“We, of course, condemn the invasion that happened. We don’t like that this is where things are, but you have got to make peace here,” Vance said. “And the only way to make peace is to sit down and talk.
“You can’t finger-point. You can’t wag your finger at somebody and say, ‘You’re wrong. We’re right.’ The way to peace is to have a decisive leader sit down and force people to come together,” he added.
Zelensky has been adamant that any peace deal inked without Ukraine “won’t work” and has seemingly pumped the brakes on the notion that Kyiv will make territorial concessions to Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that a cease-fire will only take place if it’s allowed to keep the land its military is currently occupying, which amounts to 20% of Ukraine’s territory.
Both Ukraine and Europe slammed the condition as a non-starter.
“We’re, of course, going to talk to the Ukrainians,” Vance insisted. “I actually spoke with the Ukrainians this morning. [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] has been talking to them quite a bit.”
The vice president has also been meeting with European and Ukrainian officials in the UK over the weekend as preparations unfold for the high-stakes summit in Alaska on Friday.
Trump has made ending the bloody war in Ukraine a top foreign policy priority of his second term in office.
The president has also departed from his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, by attempting to position himself as a mediator between warring Russia in Ukraine.
“We have a lot of economic points of leverage. And we’re willing to use those to bring about peace. And that was a big thing that happened,” Vance explained, appearing to credit Trump’s ultimatum against Russia for the breakthrough.
“Americans, I think, are sick of continuing to send their money, their tax dollars to this particular conflict. But if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers, we’re OK with that.”
Meanwhile, in Moscow, Russian officials are celebrating the upcoming meeting with Trump and Putin as a victory for the Kremlin.
Russia’s special economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev hailed the meeting as a path to normalize US-Russian relations, citing the location of the summit, Alaska, as a symbol of the two nations’ bond.
The US had purchased the territory from Russia in 1867 for about $7.2 million.
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