Vance says Ukraine is a ‘partner’ but has some ‘divergent interests’ from US

Vice President Vance said Ukraine is a “partner” but has some “divergent interests” from the U.S. amid tensions between Washington and Kyiv.

“Well, they’re certainly a partner in some ways, but I think we, you know, have some divergent interests from time to time,” the vice president said in an interview with 2WAY, talking about Ukraine.

“Like, for example, do I think they should be bombing Russian diesel facilities that raise the cost of energy for Americans? No. But obviously we’ve worked with them on some things,” Vance added. “We’re going to keep on working with them on some things, but I think they should stop bombing Russian energy.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” broadcast Sunday, advised the U.S. that supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “historic mistake.”

“If United States will support Putin, I mean, it’s unbelievable, it’s tragedy, it’s historic mistake and big tragedy. That’s why I think that I don’t want to live in illusions, but I think that we have to be pragmatic,” Zelensky said in the interview.

President Trump went after Zelensky in a Newsmax interview last week. When asked about Ukraine restarting attacks against Russian energy targets despite asking Zelensky to halt such strikes, Trump responded, “Zelensky is not a good guy for us to deal with. I’m not a big fan of Zelensky. They’ve destroyed that country.”

Trump added in the Newsmax interview that he thought the Russia-Ukraine war would “end soon.”

“I think they actually both would like to see it end, but I think I find Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin,” Trump said.