KEY POINTS
- US Vice President says Russia has made “significant concessions” to Trump in Ukraine peace talks.
- Vance said Russia is flexible on core demands but not “completely there yet” for ending the war.
- Trump hinted on Friday that a possible peace deal could be reached within weeks.
- Zelensky and Canadian PM Carney stress need for foreign troops as security guarantees post-war.
- Russian FM Lavrov accuses the West and Ukraine of blocking peace talks.
WASHINGTON: US Vice President JD Vance said Moscow has made “significant concessions” to President Donald Trump in efforts to end the war in Ukraine, rejecting claims that Russia is deliberately delaying a potential peace deal.
“I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict,” Vance told NBC’s Sunday talk show “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.”
“They have actually been willing to be flexible on some of their core demands. They have talked about what would be necessary to end the war,” Vance told NBC News.
Trump has been championing a bilateral meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents — but both sides have blamed each other for not wanting the talks to come through.
On August 15, Trump held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine.
“The Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict,” says @VP.
“We’re trying to negotiate as much as we can with both the Russians and Ukrainians to find a middle ground to stop the killing.” pic.twitter.com/b487LlfIyx
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 24, 2025
The US President also held a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington in an attempt to end the war.
On Friday, Trump told reporters that he was not happy about the Russian strikes on western Ukraine and indicated that any peace deal between the countries could be weeks away.
“I think over the next two weeks, we’re going to find out which way it’s going to go,” Trump said.
However, the VP underscored that Russia is not “completely there yet” to end the war, but they are engaging in a diplomatic process in “good faith”.
“We’re trying to negotiate as much as we can with both the Russians and Ukrainians to find a middle ground to stop the killing. I think what the president has been trying to do here is try to engage in very aggressive, very energetic diplomacy because this war is not in anyone’s interests.”
He also criticised former US President Joe Biden, saying he did nothing but talk and failed to stop the war. He said that there was plenty of room for negotiation.
“We’re going to eventually be successful, or we’ll hit a brick wall. And if we hit a brick wall, then we’re going to continue this process of negotiation, of applying leverage.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky said on Sunday that the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine after the war with Russia ends was “important” as Kyiv seeks to work on potential security guarantees with its Western allies.
The issue of on the ground “presence, as they say, boots on the ground, is important to us,” Zelensky said, speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who visited Kyiv on the Ukrainian Independence Day.
Carney said it was not up to Russia to decide on potential security guarantees for Ukraine that Kyiv seeks from Western allies.
“It’s not the choice of Russia how the future sovereignty, independence, liberty of Ukraine is guaranteed. It’s the choice of Ukraine and the decisions of the partners,” Carney told reporters in Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday accused Western countries of trying to “block” peace negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict.
“They’re just looking for a pretext to block negotiations,” Lavrov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday on Telegram.
He slammed Zelensky for “obstinately insisting, setting conditions, demanding an immediate meeting at all costs” with Putin.
Lavrov also accused Ukrainian authorities of “attempts to disrupt the process that was laid down by Presidents Putin and Trump, which has yielded very good results”.
“We hope that these attempts will be thwarted,” he added.
On Friday, Lavrov said “no meeting” between Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was planned.
Earlier this week, Zelensky, for his part, said Russia was “trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting”.
Zelensky has signalled willingness to meet with Putin, but only after his allies agree on security guarantees for Ukraine to deter future Russian attacks once the fighting stops.
Moscow said there could be no discussion about such guarantees without it, and said any presence of European troops in Ukraine would be “absolutely unacceptable”.
