Vice President JD Vance said Thursday in a Newsmax interview that the Russia-Ukraine war continues because neither side is willing to pursue a peace agreement despite months of negotiations.
“As much as energetic diplomacy from the president of the United States can get people to the one-yard line, eventually you have to have the two parties who are willing to cut a deal,” the vice president told Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren, host of The Record With Greta Van Susteren. “And right now, for all of our work, and we’re going to keep on working at it, the Russians and the Ukrainians are just not at the point where they can make a deal.”
However, Vance said he thinks a settlement is still possible, but that it will require “a lot more work” to reach that point, stating: “I think there’s a fundamental misalignment of expectations, where the Russians tend to think that they’re doing better on the battlefield than they actually are.”
Vance said this unwillingness has stalled progress in recent months, though talks have advanced somewhat. He credited President Trump’s foreign policy for pushing negotiations further than prior administrations.
“You know, I think that the thing that actually works in both cases is the Trump approach to diplomacy, which is energetic, that empowers his people on the ground, that actually encourages them to get a deal done and is willing to explore some unconventional means in order to get the deal done,” he said.
Vance acknowledged that there has been progress in the tackling of the war that wouldn’t have happened without Trump.
“It turned out, as the president said, I think it surprised all of us, including the president, that this is a particularly tough nut to crack,” he said.
In addressing the use of economic tools to apply pressure, Vance said the administration has found tariffs to be more productive than sanctions in influencing Russian behavior.
“You have to separate sanctions from tariffs,” he said. “Tariffs have been quite effective as a negotiating tool with the Russians. But sanctions have been tried for decades in this particular region of the world and all over the world, and I don’t think they actually work particularly well.”
In some cases, sanctions can cause significant damage to the United States economy, yet fail to achieve the desired result, Vance told Van Susteren.
“The president has been very deliberate,” the vice president continued. “He hasn’t, you know, he doesn’t just apply blanket sanctions.”
Vance said Trump has also worked directly with major trading nations to curb Russia’s energy revenues.
“With the Russian case in particular, of course, a main driver of their economy is the oil that they sell to India and China,” he said. “So he’s been working with both India and China to try to cut down on those oil sales, and again, in order to apply some pressure to the parties in the region to get peace,” adding that Trump will “keep on aggressively working on it.”
He acknowledged that the process has tested the patience of members of the administration, including himself and Trump, stating: “Yes, it’s frustrating sometimes. Yes, [Trump] gets impatient with everybody involved sometimes.”
But, he added, “So long as he keeps working on it, I think the president has great confidence he can strike a deal. I think that he will. It’s just a question of how long it’s going to take.”
COMING UP: Vice President JD Vance joins “The Record with Greta Van Susteren” to discuss President Trump’s Gaza peace deal and more — 4PM ET, only on NEWSMAX.
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