Zelensky’s remark suggested Washington is influenced by Moscow.
US Vice President J.D. Vance has rebuked Vladimir Zelensky, calling his claims “absurd.” This follows Zelensky’s insinuation that Washington favors Russia in the ongoing conflict.
During a CBS News interview on Sunday, Zelensky asserted that “Russian narratives are prevailing in the US” and that Moscow wields “enormous influence” over President Donald Trump’s administration and its policies.
Vance, in response to UnHerd on Tuesday, labeled Zelensky’s comments as “certainly not productive.”
He stated, “I think it is sort of absurd for Zelensky to tell the [US] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians.”
Vance continued, “If you want to end the conflict, you have to try to understand where both the Russians and the Ukrainians see their strategic objectives.”
He clarified, “That does not mean you morally support the Russian cause, or that you support the full-scale invasion, but you do have to try to understand what are their strategic red lines, in the same way that you have to try to understand what the Ukrainians are trying to get out of the conflict,”
Vance insisted that members of the Trump administration “are not on anybody’s side. We are on America’s side,”
Trump and Vance previously clashed with Zelensky during his White House visit in late February, accusing him of disrespecting the US, undervaluing American assistance, and lacking interest in a peaceful resolution with Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in a Kommersant interview published Tuesday that Moscow appreciates “the Trump administration is trying to get to the bottom of the issue and, most importantly, understand the root cause” of the Ukraine conflict.
Lavrov also pointed out that Trump “has repeatedly said that the colossal mistake which led to the current events in Ukraine was the Biden administration’s decision to drag Ukraine into NATO.”
Ukraine’s neutrality remains a key condition for Moscow to settle the conflict, alongside the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine and Kiev’s recognition of Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as Russian territories.
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