Trump has eliminated Ukrainian US troops and opened air support options
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said President Trump has removed boots on Ukraine’s ground in order to maintain peace.
Vice President JD Vance said he was confident that Russia had made “significant concessions” towards the negotiated settlement in the war with Ukraine, and despite no clear progress in ending the conflict, he was confident.
Speaking about NBC’s “meeting with Kristen Welker,” Vance said Russian President Vladimir Putin had made several concessions.
“I think the Russians have made the first big concession to President Trump in three and a half years of the conflict,” Vance said in a comment aired on August 24th.
“They recognize that they are unable to set up a puppet regime in Kiev. Of course, that was in great demand at first. And importantly, they acknowledged that there was some security guarantee in the integrity of Ukraine’s territory.”
In an interview on August 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that a group of countries, including members of the UN Security Council, should be guarantors of Ukraine’s security.
Last week, President Donald Trump renewed the threat of imposing sanctions on Russia if there were no progress towards a peaceful reconciliation in Ukraine in two weeks, expressing his dissatisfaction with Moscow a week after his meeting with Putin in Alaska.
Vance said sanctions will be considered on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging that the new penalties are unlikely to encourage Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Vance pointed to Trump’s announcement this month’s announcement of an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as a punishment for the purchase of Russian oil in New Delhi, as the kind of economic leverage used to pursue peace.
“He tried to make it clear that if they stopped killing, Russia could be re-invited into the global economy, but if they didn’t stop killing, they would continue to be isolated,” Vance said.
(Reporting by Nathan Lane of Wilton, Connecticut, edited by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)
