Vice President Vance on Sunday said he wants peace and to stop funding the Ukraine war, ahead of a Friday meeting in Alaska between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a ceasefire deal.
“We’re done with the funding of the Ukraine war business. We want to bring about a peaceful settlement to this thing,” Vance told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
In Alaska, the Trump administration hopes for a breakthrough in peace negotiations with Moscow and a discussion around territorial acquisitions.
Earlier this week, the Kremlin shared a ceasefire deal with the Trump administration, asking for control of Eastern Ukraine in exchange for a halt in hostilities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky adamantly opposed the deal, stating on the social platform X, “Ukraine is ready for real decisions that can bring peace. Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace.”
Zelensky was not invited to the summit, but the White House and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker have said that it’s a possibility and Trump is open to a trilateral summit.
This uneven deal led to an intense response from European leaders, who said they would support Trump’s effort diplomatically and through economic and military means but that a resolution “must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests.”
Trump vowed to end the conflict in 24 hours during his presidential campaign, but negotiations have proven harder than anticipated, and the three-year-long conflict is costly for both America and Europe.
“Americans, I think, are sick of continuing to send their money, their tax dollars of this particular conflict but if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers we’re OK with that, but we’re not going to fund it ourselves anymore,” Vance continued.
This is not the first time the vice president has asked European leaders to take on a bigger role. However, in June, Trump secured a historic deal for NATO allies to spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
In July, the president made another deal with NATO for the U.S. to send lethal weapons to Ukraine that were purchased by other NATO countries. These two steps significantly grew Europe’s economic involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Vance went to England on Saturday to discuss Trump’s efforts towards peace.
“What we said to Europeans is simply, first of all, this is in your neck of the woods, this is in your backdoor, you guys have got to step up and take a bigger role in this thing, and if you care so much about this conflict you should be willing to play a more direct and a more substantial way in funding this war yourself,” Vance said on Fox News.
