The Trump administration is sending mixed signals over its position on the Ukraine war.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Vance warned that further tough measures could be on the table for Russia if its president, Vladimir Putin, refuses to strike a deal with Ukraine that guarantees its neighbour’s sovereignty.
“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage,” he said.
But Vance appeared confident that an agreement could be reached to end the nearly three-year conflict.
“I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people,” he said.
Vance’s words appear to strike a considerably different tone to the statements made by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week, which prompted widespread concern among Kyiv’s allies in Europe as well as establishment Republicans in the US.
Hegseth on Wednesday said the return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders, before Russia’s annexation of Crimea, is an “illusionary goal.” He also threw cold water on Ukraine’s prospects of joining Nato.
While Hegseth sought to walk back part of that statement on Thursday, suggesting everything would ultimately depend on Trump, the president still appeared downbeat on Ukraine’s Nato ambitions.
“I don’t see that happening,” Trump said.
Trump this week had a lengthy phone call with Putin, without having first spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or the country’s European allies. In a post on this Truth Social platform, Trump said he and Putin both agreed to “start negotiations” on a potential deal to end the war.
Vance appear to echo the belief that everything is on the table as far as the terms of a possible deal are concerned.
“President Trump could say, look, we don’t want this thing, we might not like this thing, but we’re willing to put it back on the table if the Russians aren’t being good negotiating partners, or there are things that are very important to Ukrainians that we might want to take off the table,” he told the Journal.
Vance and Zelenskyy are scheduled to meet in Munich on Friday. US Secretary Marco Rubio was expected to join their meeting but it’s unclear if he would be able to attend after his original flight to Germany experienced a “mechanical issue.”
Zelenskyy told reporters he doesn’t believe the U.S. “has a ready-made plan” to end the war.
“I think this is very important,” he added.
