Coming out of the April 25 meeting between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue has been for Kiev and Moscow to begin direct negotiations over their substantial differences. For 12 days, Kiev has refused, insisting that the issue is a 30-day complete truce, and Washington has not provided a clear message.
Yesterday, a media outlet asked U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, premised on Moscow being uninterested in ending the fighting, as to what the U.S. plans to do? Rejecting the premise, Vance replied: “I’m not yet that pessimistic on this, I wouldn’t say that the Russians are ‘uninterested.’ What I’d say is, right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think they’re asking for too much.”
Without explicitly citing the Putin-Witkoff arrangement, Vance said that direct dialogue is key to resolving the conflict: “We’d like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another. Obviously, the United States is happy to participate in these conversations. But it’s very important for the Russians and the Ukrainians to start talking to one another.”
