Vice President JD Vance said it was ‘absurd’ for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to claim that the US government has sided with Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Vance’s comments came after Zelensky gave an interview to 60 Minutes this past weekend, where he reflected on the explosive confrontation he had in the Oval Office with the vice president and President Donald Trump.
‘I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelensky to tell the [American] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians,’ Vance told British news outlet UnHerd in a interview published Tuesday.
Vance added that what the Ukrainian leader said ‘is certainly not productive.’
Discussing his earlier showdown with Trump and Vance, Zelensky insisted that Ukraine was the ‘victim’ of the war and that Putin was the aggressor.
‘I tried to explain, “You can’t look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim,”‘ he said.
‘It’s a shift in tone, a shift in reality, really yes, a shift in reality, and I don’t want to engage in the altered reality that is being presented to me.’
Zelensky also accused Vance of ‘somehow justifying’ Russia’s invasion. Vance disputed this, saying he has condemned Russia since 2022.
Vice President JD Vance denied that the US government has side with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine
Vance was asked about the US government’s stance after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky argued that Vance justified Russia’s invasion during an appearance on 60 Minutes
‘I’ve also tried to apply strategic recognition that if you want to end the conflict, you have to try to understand where both the Russians and the Ukrainians see their strategic objectives,’ Vance said.
‘That doesn’t mean you morally support the Russian cause, or that you support the full-scale invasion, but you do have to try to understand what are their strategic red lines, in the same way that you have to try to understand what the Ukrainians are trying to get out of the conflict.’
Vance’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, previously issued a statement to DailyMail.com clarifying the vice president’s position following Zelensky’s 60 Minutes appearance.
‘The Vice President has repeatedly said that this war was not justified to begin with and is the product of Joe Biden’s weakness and incompetence,’ Kirk said.
Trump said much the same thing on Sunday.
‘If Biden were competent, and if Zelensky were competent, and I don’t know that he is… that war should never have been allowed to happen,’ he told reporters at the White House.
‘I went four years and Putin wouldn’t even bring it up and as soon as the election was rigged and I wasn’t here, that war started.’
He doubled down on his assertion that ‘everybody’s to blame’ for the war, as he repeated: ‘Biden could have stopped it, and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it.’
Trump’s most recent comments came after Russia fired a ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Sumy. The April 13 attack killed dozens and injured more than 100 people.
Pictures show destroyed buildings and burned out civilian cars at the site of a Russian ballistic missile strike on the city center, killing many civilians on April 13, 2025 in Sumy, Ukraine
A man cries as he leans on the bus that was hit by a Russian missile on Sumy, Ukraine
Tempers flaring up once again between the three leaders comes nearly two months after their showdown at the White House on February 28.
Trump and Vance repeatedly accused Zelensky of not being grateful for America’s sustained military support of Ukraine, which has totaled to roughly $100 billion according to one estimate.
Meanwhile, Zelensky showed pictures of the devastation of his country to Trump while also arguing he had thanked the American people for their aid.
The yelling match was unlike anything ever seen publicly in the Oval Office. And it played out on TV screens across the world.
Zelensky was set off when Vance claimed Trump was attempting to engage in diplomacy, whereas President Joe Biden wasn’t able to stop the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and spent four years ‘talking tough about Vladimir Putin.’
‘He occupied big parts of Ukraine. Parts of the east and parts of Crimea. He occupied it in 2014,’ Zelensky responded, referring to Putin. ‘During 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people.’
Zelensky added that he signed a ceasefire agreement with Russia in 2019 – a treaty also signed by Germany and France. He claimed Putin has been violating that agreement by launching incursions and also not abiding by a prisoner-swap deal.
‘What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about?’ Zelensky asked the vice president.
The February 28 meeting turned sour especially after Zelensky made a comment about the US having a ‘nice ocean’ separating it from conflict in Europe
Trump and Zelensky are seen in the Oval Office arguing over how a wind down to the war between Ukraine and Russia should look like
‘I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,’ Vance said.
When Zelensky tried to cut in, Vance continued with: ‘Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.
‘Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems.’
‘You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,’ Vance added.
Zelensky further angered Trump and Vance when he made a comment about the US having ‘a nice ocean’ separating it from conflict.
‘First of all during the war, everybody has problems. Even you, but you have a nice ocean and don’t feel it now but you will feel it in the future.’
Trump jumped in to say, ‘Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel… You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.’
‘You’re gambling with World War III,’ Trump bellowed at Zelensky at one point.
Trump also repeatedly reminded the Ukrainian leader that he needs US support to continue the war effort against Putin.
‘You don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards. But without us, you don’t have any cards,’ Trump said.
