Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that Russia has made “significant concessions” in conversations to finish his war with Ukraine, but did not rule out imposing more sanctions to press the Kremlin towards peace.
In an interview broadcast on “Meet The Press” of NBC, Vance was asked if Russia is chaining President Donald Trump, Vance said no and said that the Russians have been “flexible” in some of their demands.
“I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in 3 and a half years of this conflict. They have actually been willing to be flexible with some of their main demands. They have talked about what would be necessary to end the war,” he said. “Of course, they have not yet been completely there, or the war would end. But we are participating in this diplomatic process in good faith.”
“Sometimes we feel that we have progressed a lot with the Russians, and sometimes, as the president said, he has been very frustrated with the Russians,” Vance continued.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance speak after announcing that the FIFA 2026 World Cup raffle will be held at the Kennedy center in December 2025, at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on August 22, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon/EPA/Shuttersock
The vice president was pressed on why he believes that Russia wants to continue peace since he has rejected the proposal of Alto El Fuego that Trump presented and that there is no planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Well, I didn’t say they granted everything,” he replied. “But what they have admitted is the recognition that Ukraine will have territorial integrity after the war. They have recognized that they cannot install a puppet regime in kyiv. That was, of course, a great demand at the beginning. And most importantly, they have recognized that there will be some guarantee of security for the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Vance told NBC that they are possible more sanctions against Russia, but those decisions would be taken on a case case.
“No, the sanctions are not out of the table. But we are going to make these determinations in case. What do we think will really exercise the right type of leverage to take the Russians to the table,” said Vance?
In a separate interview recorded on Friday and was broadcast on Sunday in “Meet the Press”, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked, what would you say to US legislators who accused Russia of implementing Trump, Lavrov said that Russia respects the president of the United States.
“It is not for legislators or for any means of communication, decide, you know, why President Trump is motivated, we respect President Trump because President Trump defends US national interests,” Lavrov said.
Russian Foreign Minister said it is the European leaders who met with Trump and Zelenskyy last week in Washington and No Putin that are an impediment to obtaining a peace agreement.
“And I have reasons to believe that President Trump respects President Putin because he defends Russian national interests,” he added. “And what they discuss among themselves is not a secret. We want peace in Ukraine. He wants, President Trump wants, La Paz in Ukraine. The reaction to the Anchorage meeting, the meeting in Washington of these European representatives and what they were doing after Washington indicates that they do not want peace.”
Lavrov told NBC that there is no scheduled meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, since Trump has pressed, saying that there must first be an agenda before something is over.
Zelenskyy said Friday that there will be no meetings among the presidents because Russia does not want to end the war.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a joint press conference with Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, after his conversations in the Zinaida Morozava mansion in Moscow, Russia, on August 21, 2025.
Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool through Reuters
“The problem is not just the meeting. The problem is that they don’t want to end the war,” he said. “A bilateral meeting is one of the components of how to finish the war. It is not all, it is one of the components. And how they do not want to finish it, they will seek space for it. And this space must be reduced. America and Europe in the unit reduce this space for war.”
United States and Europe defense officials have discussed security guarantees for Ukraine to avoid greater Russian aggression, but few details have arisen.
The NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, was in Ukraine on Friday to present a framework for security guarantees for Ukraine with Zelenskyy.
“The first layer has to be that the Ukrainian armed forces are as strong as possible to defend this proud country and nation in the future,” said Routte, saying that would come after a peace agreement or “high fire in the long term.”
He added: “And the second layer must be the security guarantees provided by Europe and the United States.”
Vance reaffirmed Trump’s previous comments that there will be no US troops in the field in Ukraine as a guarantee of security in part.
“The president has been very clear. There will be no boots in the field in Ukraine, but we will continue to play an active role in trying to ensure that Ukrainians have the security guarantees and confidence they need to stop the war on their part,” he said.
When asked about the comments that Putin made in June, saying: “I consider that the Russian and Ukrainian people are a nation. In this sense, all Ukraine is ours,” and if Ukraine has the right to exist, Lavrov replied: “Ukraine has the right to exist, provided that people go away.”
“The people they call ‘terrorists’, who call species and that during a reference, several referents in Novalossiya, in Donbas, in Crimea decided that they belonged to the Russian culture and the government that came to power as a result of the coup was determined as a priority to exterminate all Russian,” said Lavrov.
Zelenskyy has long opposed Sovereign territory to Russia, saying that the Constitution of the Nation prohibits it.
Lavrov also delayed when he was asked to acknowledge that Russia invaded Ukraine, saying: “Russia began a special military operation to defend the people that Zelenskyy and his predecessor did not consider as humans.”
