Vice President JD Vance says relations between the US and Ukraine are now “much more productive” since his February Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling the confrontation that shocked the world one of the most memorable moments of his vice presidency.
On Wednesday’s episode of the New York Post’s Pod Force One, Vance described the viral confrontation as “probably the most famous thing I’ve ever done, or maybe ever will do.”
“That was six [eight] months ago,” Vance told Post columnist Miranda Devine. “We have turned over a new leaf.”
“We’re trying to have productive relationships with both the Ukrainians and the Russians, because we want to end this conflict, and I think the president has a very good working relationship — and so do I — with all the parties involved,” Vance added.
Zelensky’s February 28 White House visit began cordially to discuss a minerals deal with President Donald Trump, but tensions flared when Vance called for Ukraine and Russia to pursue a diplomatic resolution.
In front of the world media, Zelensky questioned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to negotiate, sparking a public shouting match.
Vance scolded Zelensky for supposedly not thanking the U.S. often enough for past aid, mostly provided by the Biden administration, with Trump backing him and warning Kyiv it was risking World War III by not making peace with the invading Russians. Trump shouted at his guest that “you don’t have the cards right now.”
The Vice President told Zelensky: “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media … you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
A visibly shocked Zelensky invited Vance to visit Ukraine and see the situation for himself.
Reflecting on the confrontation, Vance told Devine: “If you go back to that moment, I was getting frustrated because I perceived some rudeness.
“I think the takeaway from that for me, but also I think for any foreign leader who comes to the Oval Office, in particular … you try to basically respect the rules of the house that you’re in,” he continued. “If you’re going to disagree … you can do it in a particularly productive way, or you can do it in an unproductive way.”
Laughing as the subject of the meeting was brought up by Devine, Vance denied that his and Trump’s reaction to Zelensky had been coordinated, despite a widespread perception that it appeared to have been a deliberate ambush. “Not at all, not at all, no.”
Trump has repeatedly shifted his approach to the Ukraine war in recent months, at one point calling Russia a “paper tiger” and suggesting Ukraine could reclaim lost territory. However, after an October 16 call with Putin, Trump expressed a more pessimistic view during a meeting with Zelensky.
Zelensky requested approval to buy long-range Tomahawk missiles, but Trump has so far withheld them.
Then, last week, Trump put sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies.
“I actually think airing everything out, doing it in public, actually articulating where there were disagreements and where there were common interests, actually was pretty productive,” Vance reflected on the podcast.
Vance, however, declined to forecast what lies ahead in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
“If you asked me six months or so ago, I would have said, ‘They’re never going to stop fighting. This is going to be like Russia’s Vietnam,” Vance said. “’Fifteen years later, they’re still going to be fighting.’ If you asked me a month ago, I would have said we’re making incredible progress [toward peace].”
“It’s hard to venture a prediction, but I do think that we have reached the point of diminishing returns for both sides,” he said.
Before the 2024 election, Trump repeatedly promised that he would fix the Ukraine war “on day one” – or even before he had taken office. Despite repeated talks between the U.S. president and, separately, his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts – even giving Putin the red-carpet treatment on his visit to Alaska – there has been no end to the fighting.
Challenged on his promises to end the war on his first day in office, Trump said he had been speaking “in jest.”
