Vance: Ukraine seeks security, Russia seeks territory in push for peace

Vice President JD Vance said that ongoing negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine are centred on two key issues — security guarantees for Ukraine and territory that Russia seeks to control, including areas not currently under Russian occupation — as the United States intensifies efforts to broker a peace agreement between the two countries.

“There really are two big questions lingering out there, and in some ways it’s very simple, but in some ways it’s very complicated,” Vance said during an interview on August 20 with Laura Ingraham on Fox News.

“Number one is, Ukraine wants to know that it’s not going to get invaded again by Russia. It wants to know that it’s got territorial integrity long into the future. The Russians want certain pieces of territory, most of which they’ve occupied, but some of which they haven’t,” he added.

President Donald Trump has been increasing his push to bring the war — now in its fourth year — to an end. Last week, Trump held a summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by talks at the White House on August 18 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European allies.

Vance noted that a direct meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders could be instrumental in advancing the negotiations toward their objectives.

“That is really where the meat of the negotiation is,” he said. “The Ukrainians want security guarantees. The Russians want a certain amount of territory.”

Efforts are underway to arrange such a bilateral meeting, though the timing and location have not yet been decided. According to Trump, if the meeting proves successful, he plans to move forward with organising a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskyy.

Vance also told Ingraham that he has spoken with Putin by phone “a number of times,” offering a personal impression of the Russian leader.

“The American media has a particular image of him,” Vance said. “He’s very deliberate. He’s very careful,” adding that Putin is “more soft-spoken than you would necessarily expect.”

By Tamilla Hasanova