JD Vance blasts Zelenskyy's '60 Minutes' comments as 'absurd,' 'not productive'
Vice President JD Vance responded to comments that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made on CBS’ "60 Minutes" criticizing his position on Russia.
Vice President JD Vance attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s "absurd" comments on "60 Minutes," saying they were "not productive" for war discussions.
Zelenskyy referenced the vice president during an interview on the CBS program Sunday night where he reflected on the explosive Oval Office meeting between him, President Donald Trump and Vance in February.
He claimed "Russian narratives" were "prevailing" in the room and added Vance was defending Russia in what he called a "shift in reality."
"First and foremost, we did not launch an attack to start the war," Zelenskyy said. "It seems to me that the vice president is somehow justifying Putin’s actions. I tried to explain, you can’t look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor, and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim."
In an interview with the British site UnHerd on Tuesday, Vance responded, "I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelenskyy to tell the [American] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians."
UnHerd added that Vance called Zelenskyy’s rhetoric "certainly not productive."
Vance cited his past condemnations of Russia and defended his stance on the war.
"I’ve also tried to apply strategic recognition that if you want to end the conflict, you have to try to understand where both the Russians and the Ukrainians see their strategic objectives," Vance said.
"That doesn’t mean you morally support the Russian cause, or that you support the full-scale invasion, but you do have to try to understand what are their strategic red lines, in the same way that you have to try to understand what the Ukrainians are trying to get out of the conflict."
In a comment to Fox News Digital, Vance's press secretary Taylor Van Kirk gave a similar critique of Zelenskyy’s comments.
"The Vice President has repeatedly said that this war was not justified to begin with and is the product of Joe Biden’s weakness and incompetence. Instead of mischaracterizing Vice President Vance's rhetoric, President Zelenskyy should be focused on bringing this conflict to a peaceful conclusion. His comments are counterproductive to the goal of achieving peace for his country," Van Kirk said.
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Van Kirk also gave examples of Vance criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in starting a war against Ukraine, including as an Ohio Senate candidate on Fox News. Putin launched the invasion in February of 2022, the same year Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate.
"The only responsible thing to do is try to bring this conflict to an end before it gets to the point of nuclear weapons," Vance told Fox News' Martha MacCallum in 2022. "You can believe, as I do, that Ukrainians are brave people and that Vladimir Putin is a bad guy, without pushing the United States to the brink of nuclear war."
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