JD Vance Tells Charlie Kirk the ‘Ukrainians Aren’t Winning the War’ With Russia: ‘Not the Reality We Live In’
MAGA organizer and influencer Charlie Kirk spoke to Vice President JD Vance on his podcast on Monday, and at one point in the conversation, discussed President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Ending the Russian-Ukrainian war– President Trump was sitting next to Zelensky in an epic picture in Italy at the Pope’s funeral. This was their first meeting since your Oval Office meeting where you were also in there. Talk [about] what you know about this that you could share and how the president is doing everything he possibly can to bring peace to the region, and what is the United States’ perspective on this seemingly impossible struggle and war that President Trump is leaning in, literally, with Zelensky to try to get finished?” Kirk asked the vice president.
“Yeah, Charlie, so I obviously don’t want to prejudge the negotiations because they’re very much, you know, in full swing. I actually had a conversation just this morning about this particular issue. Here’s, here’s the way that I put it, Charlie is, you know, one, if I could bring people on the inside, I think what they’d see is that sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with Ukrainians. Sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with the Russians,” Vance replied, adding:
You know, that is the nature of the negotiation is you’re going back and forth. And sometimes you just want to throw your hands up, but that’s what President Trump doesn’t let us do. He doesn’t just let us throw our hands up and say, you know what, this is ridiculous. He forces us to continually go back to the table, continually try to find a solution, bring the sides together.
And that really is sort of where this thing is right now. You have the Russians who have one peace settlement that they’d like. You have the Ukrainians, they have a different peace settlement. The biggest breakthrough is that we’ve got both of them talking about what they would need in order to stop fighting. But what one side needs is different from what the other side needs, and it’s the job of diplomacy to try to bring those two sides together.
I can’t say with 100% certainty, Charlie, we’re going to be able to do it. But I do think that we’re trying very hard and I feel more optimistic about it today than I did two weeks ago. And I felt more optimistic two weeks ago than I did two months ago. So we’re making progress. Things are moving along. We’re just gonna have to keep on. You know, sometimes you apply pressure. Sometimes you’re a little bit more friendly. Sometimes you offer rewards. Sometimes you offer punishments. It’s just, it’s a nitty gritty dirty job, but it’s the job the American people elected the Trump administration to do.
“If this doesn’t stop, Charlie, one final point on this, if this doesn’t stop, the Ukrainians aren’t winning the war. I think there’s this weird idea among the mainstream media that if this thing goes on for just another few years, the Russians will collapse, the Ukrainians will take their territory back, and everything will go back to the way that it was before the war, that is not the reality that we live in,” Vance declared as he wrapped his comments, concluding with an ominous warning:
If this thing goes on for another few years, we could have societies collapsing. The demographics of both of these countries are a nightmare. You could have millions of more people killed if this thing goes on for another few years, and it could risk escalating into a nuclear war. It has to stop. It is the policy of this administration that it stops, and I guarantee you the president is having all of his people, including me, work very hard for that end goal.
Watch the clip above.
