US Vice President JD Vance said Moscow has shown “significant concessions” to President Donald Trump over its demands to end the Russia-Ukraine war, rejecting claims that the Kremlin is deliberately stalling peace talks. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Vance was asked whether Russia was “stringing President Trump along” after his meeting earlier this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Vance responded, “I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict.”“They’ve actually been willing to be flexible on some of their core demands. They’ve talked about what would be necessary to end the war,” he added.The Vice President also addressed a Russian missile strike on a US-owned electronics factory in western Ukraine last week that injured several workers.When asked if he was “enraged,” Vance said: “I don’t like it.”“But this is a war, and this is why we want to stop the killing. The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like. A lot of civilians have died. We’ve condemned that stuff from the get-go,” he noted.He contrasted Trump’s approach with that of former President Joe Biden, saying, “Frankly, President Trump has done more to apply pressure and to apply economic leverage to the Russians, certainly, than Joe Biden did for 3 ½ years, when he did nothing but talk, did nothing to bring the killing to a stop. So you asked me what I’m enraged by? What I’m enraged by is the continuation of the war.”
What Russia said on possible three-way meeting?
Earlier on Friday, Trump had also told reporters he was “not happy” about the strikes in western Ukraine and suggested a possible peace deal could be close. “I think over the next two weeks, we’re going to find out which way it’s going to go,” the US President had said.However, Russia’s foreign minister told NBC that no meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been scheduled, casting doubt on the timeline.
Carney joined Ukraine’s Independence Day celebrations
Meanwhile in Kyiv, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joined Ukraine’s Independence Day celebrations on Sunday and urged an immediate ceasefire. “We need a cessation of hostilities. We need a ceasefire. We can call it a ceasefire, a truce, an armistice. That’s necessary to stop the killing,” Carney said alongside Zelenskyy.“There’s a reason that NATO recognises member states’ investments in Ukraine as defence, Ukraine’s defence, as critical investments in our collective defense as NATO members. Because if Russia’s aggression goes unchallenged, it will not stop here,” he added.