JD Vance Says Territory Concessions Needed For Ukraine-Russia Deal
The US is prepared to recognize Russia’s control over Crimea peninsula and to ease sanctions on Moscow as part of a potential peace dea.
Vice President JD Vance said the US has issued a “very explicit proposal” to Russia and Ukraine on a path forward to a peace deal, adding “it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process.”
“The current lines, somewhere close to them is where you’re ultimately, I think, going to draw the new lines in the conflict,” Vance told reporters in India on Wednesday, after finishing a tour of the Taj Mahal. He added that doing so would mean both Ukraine and Russia would have to give up some territory each side currently controls.
Freezing the conflict along existing battle lines would be a far greater sacrifice for Ukraine, which has sought to regain all territory in the country’s east and south seized by Russia since 2014, including Crimea, and following the February 2022 full-scale invasion.
The US is prepared to recognize Russia’s control over the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula and to ease sanctions on Moscow as part of a potential peace deal, Bloomberg previously reported. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday his country wouldn’t recognize the Russian occupation of Crimea, which is internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory.
“There’s going to have to be some territorial swaps,” Vance said, adding that while the border may not wind up as the exact front lines as they stand now, in order to get the killing to stop both sides need to “put down their weapons, to freeze this thing and to get on with the business of actually building a better Russia and a better Ukraine.”
US President Donald Trump warned last week that he was ready to walk away from efforts to end the war in Ukraine if a deal can’t be reached soon. His envoy Steven Witkoff will travel to Russia later in the week after visiting President Vladimir Putin three times already since the inauguration and describing his most recent meeting as “compelling.”
Vance said he was “optimistic” about the talks, adding he sees all sides as having negotiated in good faith so far.
Talks planned in London on Wednesday between top officials from the US, Ukraine and major European powers have been downgraded to technical-level meetings after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio postponed his visit.
