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Vice President JD Vance said he believes his answer to a journalist's question set Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "off" during their public White House discussion alongside President Donald Trump last week.
“I do think that there was just a certain sense of — there was a lack of respect. There was a certain sense of entitlement,” Vance said while discussing the incident publicly during an interview with FOX News host Sean Hannity on Monday (March 3) night.
Vance, 40, attempted to explain the importance of engaging in diplomacy to end the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, at which point Zelensky asked if he could follow up, which led to the vice president describing Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, prior failed peace agreements, and a ceasefire violated by the Kremlin in 2019 as examples.
“What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?” Zelensky asked at the time.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance responded. “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media…You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
Vance then accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for American aid and questioned whether the Ukrainian president ever said thank you during the ongoing meeting. Zelensky has publicly thanked the United States for its support multiple times on his X account, as well as during an address to Congress in December 2022.
Vance claimed that he tried to defuse the situation and wanted to have the conversation in private while speaking to Hannity.
“The president was like, nope, actually, I don’t want to have it in private anymore. I want to have this actual conversation in public for the American people to see,” Vance said.
Trump claimed that Zelensky was "gambling with World War III" during a back and forth exchange as the rare earth minerals deal the two world leaders were supposed to sign fell through when the Ukrainian president was asked to leave the White House. Trump later claimed Zelensky could come back "when he is ready for Peace" in a post shared on his Truth Social account.
“The president has set a very clear goal for his administration. He wants the killing to stop. And I think that it’s very important that President Zelensky and of course, President Putin, too, they’ve both got to come to the negotiating table. And that’s ultimately where things broke apart,” Vance claimed during his Hannity appearance. “I really don’t care what President Zelensky says about me or anybody else. But he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process that President Trump has said is the policy of the American people and of their president.”
“This thing cannot go on forever,” he added. “There aren’t enough Ukrainian lives, there isn’t enough American money, and there isn’t enough ammunition to fund this thing indefinitely. The only realistic pathway to bring this thing to a settlement is President Trump’s pathway. We encourage both President Zelensky and [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin to follow that path.”