JD Vance chats with Zelensky about achieving ‘durable’ peace between Ukraine, Russia

Vice President JD Vance said he had a productive talk Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about achieving “durable” peace between Ukraine and Russia — but didn’t tip his hand about the terms being discussed after hinting at economic and military “tools of leverage.”

“We had a number of fruitful conversations, a number of things for us to follow up and work on. And fundamentally, the goal is, as President Trump outlined it, we want the war to come to a close,” Vance said after his meeting at the Munich Security Conference.

“We want the killing to stop, but we want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road. So we had a number of good conversations about how we might accomplish that together, and certainly we’ll have many more in the days, weeks and months to come.”

The vice president sat across from Zelensky flanked by other US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine peace envoy Keith Kellogg.

The meeting was the first time Vance had spoken with Zelensky, and was the beginning of delegation talks started by President Trump to bring the three-year war to a close.

Zelensky said he agreed with Vance about wanting to end the war, but that Ukraine will need “real security guarantees.”

Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky in separate phone conversations on Wednesday, revealing for the first time the contents of his conversations with Putin.

He also told reporters he anticipates a meeting with the Russian president soon, likely in Saudi Arabia, and that he wants negotiations to begin “immediately” between US and Russian counterparts to end the war.

Trump has not said exactly what he will ask Zelensky and Putin to give up in negotiations, but said this week he doesn’t see Ukraine being in NATO — one request made by Zelensky — as “realistic.”

The president is also sending Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Ukraine to discuss getting billions worth of rare-earth minerals from Ukraine in exchange for continued security.

Vance expressed optimism with the negotiating team, led by Rubio and Kellogg, saying “it’s important for us to get together and start to have the conversations.”

In a Wall Street Journal interview published Thursday, Vance said everything was “on the table” amid negotiations.

“There are economic tools of leverage,” the vice president noted. “There are of course military tools of leverage.”