During his first meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday to discuss Donald Trump’s quest for a settlement with Moscow, US Vice President JD Vance promised that Washington aimed to achieve a “lasting” peace.
After Trump shocked allies by declaring efforts to reach a truce with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Kyiv saw the Munich talks as a crucial step in its efforts to maintain Washington’s support.
“We want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road,” Vance said as the meeting wrapped up.
He said “good conversations” had been had with Zelensky about how they could reach that goal, and they would have more talks “in the days, weeks and months to come”.
Zelensky also hailed a “good conversation”, saying the encounter with Vance was “our first meeting, not last, I’m sure”.
“We are ready to move as quickly as possible towards a real and guaranteed peace,” Zelensky later wrote on X, adding that an envoy from Washington would visit Kyiv.
In his first contact with Putin since taking office again, Trump shook Ukraine and its European allies on Wednesday by offering to begin peace negotiations.
Concerns that Ukraine would be left out in the cold after fighting Moscow’s invasion for almost three years were raised by the abrupt thaw in relations.
“We will have low, low chance to survive without support of the United States,” Zelensky said in a clip from an NBC interview, which will be aired on full Sunday.
The Ukrainian leader stated that he would be willing to meet with Putin after he and Trump had reached an agreement on a “common plan.” US officials have urged that Zelensky will participate in negotiations.
Prior to the conference, Vance stated that Europe should “of course” be at the table and that the US was ready to put pressure on Russia.
However, he also instructed Europe to “step up” and strengthen its own defense so that Washington could concentrate on threats in other parts of the world.
