US Vice President JD Vance has claimed that Moscow is beginning to back down on key demands in its war with Ukraine, signalling what he called “significant concessions” in the search for a negotiated settlement.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Vance said President Vladimir Putin had accepted that Ukraine would need security guarantees against further Russian aggression.
“For the first time in three and a half years of this conflict, the Russians have made real concessions to President Trump,” Vance said. “They’ve accepted they cannot install a puppet regime in Kyiv and acknowledged there must be some form of guarantee for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
Despite this shift, Vance admitted there was still little evidence that the war, the bloodiest in Europe since World War Two, was nearing a conclusion.
When Russia launched its invasion in 2022, it sought sweeping territorial gains and political control over Ukraine. Those demands have been steadily pared back as the fighting has dragged on.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, started a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. In return for ending Russia’s attacks, Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, sources told Reuters last week.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that a group of nations, including United Nations Security Council members, should be the guarantors of Ukraine’s security.
On Friday, President Donald Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia if there was no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, showing frustration at Moscow a week after he met with Putin in Alaska.
Vance said sanctions would be considered on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging that new penalties were unlikely to prompt Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Vance pointed to Trump’s announcement this month of an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as a punishment for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil as the kind of economic leverage that would be used in pursuit of peace.
“He’s tried to make it clear that Russia can be re-invited into the world economy if they stop the killing, but they’re going to continue to be isolated if they don’t stop the killing,” Vance said.
