Vance told Zelenskyy U.S. will not negotiate peace with Russia without Ukraine

“Vice President JD Vance assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European allies during today's call that the U.S. would not negotiate with Russia about a solution to the war in Ukraine without Ukraine or Europe,” the report reads.

Citing two unnamed German officials on the call, the journalists added that U.S. President Donald Trump, Vance, and other U.S. officials “showed high interest” in the concerns outlined by Kyiv and European allies ahead of Trump’s meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15.

Trump and Putin will meet in Anchorage, Alaska, this Friday.

The U.S. president has said he will discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine with Putin, and that his settlement plan envisions a land swap in which Kyiv would regain part of its territory but allegedly have to give up other areas.

On Aug. 9, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainians would not give their land to occupiers and that the territorial issue is in Ukraine’s constitution, which no one will violate. He later added that the Defense Forces would not leave the non-occupied part of Donbas in exchange for a cease-fire.

Trump said he was concerned by Zelenskyy’s words on the territorial issue.

On Aug. 12, Zelenskyy said that Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin on U.S. soil is a personal victory for Putin. At the same time, Zelenskyy said that war issues should be addressed in at least a trilateral format with Ukraine’s participation.