LOS ANGELES.–Speaking to British news outlet “unHerd” April 14, 40-year-old Vice President J.D. Vance pushed back at 47-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who said it appeared the U.S. was on Russia’s side of the Ukraine War. When Zelensky met with 78-year-old President Donald Trump and Vance on Feb. 28, he was supposed to sign a long-term rare earth deal, a joint project with the U.S. to mine and refine rare earth minerals in Ukraine. Zelensky reneged on the deal and blew up at Trump and Vance in the Oval Office, accusing the two of taking Russia’s side. Zelensky reacted the same way to every peace deal presented by a host of countries over the last three years, that the deals all favored Russia. Now Zelensky tells CBS “60 Minutes” that the U.S. seems to back the Russian position in the Ukraine War, something Vance found “sort of absurd.”
Vance points to the fact that Ukraine still receives the lion’s share of cash-and-arms from the U.S. it received under former President Joe Biden. Whatever change of tone Zelensky noticed, it directly related to Trump fulfilling a campaign promise to end the war at the earliest possible time. So, whatever Zelensky thinks, Trump has reversed Biden’s blank check policy and expects Zelensky to move forward with his peace efforts with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump and his negotiation team led by special envoy Steve Witkoff have been working overtime to get a ceasefire and peace deal from Putin. Witkoff met with Putin for five hours April 15, getting down to brass tacks what it will take to end the conflict. Zelensky may not like Trump’s peace efforts but Trump told him that any peace deal is better for Ukraine than continuing the war.
Zelensky has done everything possible to keep the war going, rejecting Trump’s peace efforts as favoring Putin. “I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelensky to tell the [American] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we’re are somehow on the side of the Russians” Vance told British news outlet unHerd. Vance tried to reason with Zelensky in the Oval Office, prompting Zelensky’s meltdown, accusing the White House of betraying Ukraine. Zelensky told “60 Minutes” that Vance was “somehow justify [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s actions,” showing how he wants to keep the Biden proxy war strategy in tack. How Zelensky thinks he can dictate U.S. foreign policy is anyone’s guess but he’s not accepting any current peace efforts. Zelensky convinced the European Union that Trump cannot be trusted to promote a fair-and-lasting peace.
When it comes to peace efforts, the EU tells Zelensky that it backs his efforts to end the Ukraine War on his terms. Only recently the EU said that if Russia wants peace they need to remove all the forces from Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula. So, the EU has bought Zelensky’s demands for peace that is no peace plan at all. When Witkoff said he finally got the answer for a permanent peace from Putin, it’s bad news for Zelensky that wants to reverse over three years of war with the Kremlin. Zelensky thinks Putin should return all the sovereign territory he’s captured in three years of war. What combatant in a war gives back its spoils to settle a conflict? Yet that’s exactly what Zelensky thinks Putin should do. He doesn’t see the Russian side of the conflict, especially that Biden was arming Ukraine to the teeth with lethal U.S. arms used only for war.
Zelenky told “60 Minutes” that Trump’s policy is different that Biden, trying to act clueless about the change in U.S. governments Jan. 20, 2025. “It’s a ship in tone, a shift in reality, really yes, a shift in reality that is be presented to me,” suggesting the both sides in the conflict are at fault. Zelensky acts like taking unlimited U.S. arms into Ukraine didn’t present problems for Russian national security. Zelensky can’t fathom that Putin Feb. 24, 2022 invasion was in anyway provoked or justified. Biden said repeatedly that the conflict was “unprovoked and unjustified,” when, in fact, Zelensky continued receiving massive quantities of U.S. arms over the Kremlin’s objections. So, when it comes to “unprovoked and unjustified,” it’s a matter of who you’re talking to.
Vance tried to set the record straight about he and Trump doing everything possible to bring the over three year conflict to an end. Zelensky couldn’t fathom in the Feb. 28 Oval Office meeting that a ceasefire and peace deal helped Ukraine recover from his three years of destruction and loss of sovereign territory. Instead of going along with Trump’s plan, Zelensky ran to the European Union to pit Washington against Brussels. “I’ve also tried to apply strategic recognition that if you want to end the conflict, you have to try to understand where both the Russians and the Ukrainians see their strategic objectives,” Vance told unHerd. Zelensky has told U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer that Trump wants to get Ukraine the short end of the stick. Vance told unHerd that it’s absurd that Zelensky doesn’t think that he and Trump work for Ukraine’s future recovery and reconstruction.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
