SATURDAY, JUL 20, 2024 – 06:15 AM
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on statements from former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance regarding their plans to end the war in Ukraine. Zakharova emphasized the need for a realistic perspective on these prospects.
“We saw the statements — Trump said he would resolve the conflict within 24 hours, then Vance said that China is a bigger problem for the United States than the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” she said, according to Reuters.
Zakharova highlighted the distinction between pre-election rhetoric and statements from government officials with actual decision-making power. “If we talk about whether it’s possible to resolve the conflict, let’s be realistic,” she added.
Reflecting on the previous Trump administration, Zakharova noted that despite promises of peace in the Middle East, the anticipated “deal of the century” did not materialize, and under President Biden, the situation deteriorated significantly.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also acknowledged Trump’s comments about ending the war in Ukraine, stating that he takes them “seriously” but is not aware of any concrete proposals from the former president.
Last month, in an interview with The New York Times, Vance proposed a potential peace plan. “What I would like to do … is you freeze the territorial lines somewhere close to where they are right now. That’s number one. Number two is you guarantee both Kyiv’s independence but also its neutrality. It’s the fundamental thing the Russians have asked from the beginning,” he said. “And then three, there’s going to have to be some American security assistance over the long term. I think those three things are certainly achievable, yes.”
Vance also expressed a desire for the US to reduce its support for Ukraine to focus more on the Asia Pacific region and arm Taiwan. “The thing that we can control now is making it costly for [China] to invade Taiwan, and we’re not doing that because we’re sending all the damn weapons to Ukraine and not Taiwan,” he told the Times.