Vice President JD Vance has detailed the moment it all went wrong during the heated exchange between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last week.
President Trump invited Ukrainian president Zelenskyy to the White House last week (February 28) in the hope of discussing a peace deal that would see the end of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In a fiery conversation broadcast live across the world, the 47th POTUS accused Zelenskyy of 'gambling with World War 3', while Vance insisted that Zelenskyy was treating both Trump and the US with disrespect and persistently called on the Ukrainian to 'thank' the president.
"I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media…You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict," Vance added.
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The vice president has since spoken out about the infamous Oval Office moment, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity: "I do think that there was just a certain sense of — there was a lack of respect. There was a certain sense of entitlement."
Vance claimed he had hoped to have had the conversation with Zelenskyy in private, but that came to no avail.
He continued: "The president was like, 'nope, actually, I don’t want to have it in private anymore. I want to have this actual conversation in public for the American people to see'.
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"The president has set a very clear goal for his administration. He wants the killing to stop.
"And I think that it’s very important that President Zelensky and of course, President Putin, too, they’ve both got to come to the negotiating table. And that’s ultimately where things broke apart.
"I really don’t care what President Zelensky says about me or anybody else. But he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process that President Trump has said is the policy of the American people and of their president."
Vance went on to say during the 'Hannity' segment that the war in Ukraine 'cannot go on forever'.
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The VP added: "There aren’t enough Ukrainian lives, there isn’t enough American money, and there isn’t enough ammunition to fund this thing indefinitely.
"The only realistic pathway to bring this thing to a settlement is President Trump’s pathway. We encourage both President Zelensky and President Putin to follow that path."
Vance's latest comments come as Trump has paused all US military aid being sent to Ukraine to assist on the frontline.
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Russia, US News, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, JD Vance
Callum Jones