US Vice President J.D. Vance denies the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) accurately portrayed his statements regarding Ukraine, rejecting the newspaper’s claim that he threatened military action against Russia.
Vice President Vance accused the WSJ of misrepresenting his comments on the Ukraine conflict. He disputes the newspaper’s Thursday report alleging he threatened Russia with sanctions or military intervention.
The WSJ article, titled “Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal,” summarized Vance as promising sanctions and potential military action if President Putin refused a peace deal ensuring Ukrainian independence.
Following the WSJ report, the Kremlin requested clarification. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday that Moscow was unaware of such statements. Peskov said, “These are new elements of the [US] position; we have not heard such statements before.”
Vance countered these claims on Friday, asserting that President Trump would achieve regional peace by ending the conflict and that the WSJ misinterpreted his remarks.
“As we’ve always said, American troops should never be put into harm’s way where it doesn’t advance American interests and security,” Vance wrote on X. “The fact that the WSJ twisted my words in the way they did for this story is absurd, but not surprising,” he added.
Vance’s communications director, William Martin, condemned the article as “pure fake news,” providing a transcript of Vance’s interview with the WSJ to demonstrate the vice president made no threats.
The transcript shows Vance stated President Trump would consider various options when negotiating with Russia and Ukraine, mentioning “economic tools of leverage” and “military tools of leverage,” but without specifying actions.
“There’s a whole host of things that we could do. But fundamentally, I think the President wants to have a productive negotiation, both with Putin and with [Vladimir] Zelensky,” the transcript stated.
Martin explained that Vance “simply stated the fact that no one is going to take options away from President Trump as these negotiations begin.”
The Wall Street Journal’s report subsequently received a community note on X, stating: “JD Vance made no explicit pledge to either sanctions or military actions.” The note links to Martin’s post including the transcript.
A day after the article’s publication, Vance and Ukrainian President Zelensky met at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Vance reiterated Washington’s commitment to lasting peace in Ukraine while advocating for direct Ukraine-Russia negotiations.
“It’s important for us to get together and start to have the conversations that are going to be necessary to bring this thing to a close,” he said.