Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) recently laid out a potential Trump administration\u2019s approach to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, saying former president Donald Trump\u2019s handling of the conflict could include establishing a \u201cdemilitarized zone\u201d in Ukrainian territory now occupied by Russia.<\/p>\n
The approach would mark a dramatic change from the Biden administration\u2019s policy \u2014 which is focused on providing military and other assistance, along with Europe and other allies \u2014 to help Ukraine repel and reverse Russian aggression.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what this looks like is Trump sits down, he says to the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Europeans: You guys need to figure out. What does a peaceful settlement look like? And what it probably looks like is the current line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine, that becomes like a demilitarized zone,\u201d Vance said Wednesday on \u201cThe Shawn Ryan Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed demilitarized zone, Vance added, would be \u201cheavily fortified so the Russians don\u2019t invade again.\u201d As part of the peace plan, Vance said, Ukraine would maintain its independence in exchange for a guarantee of neutrality \u2014 meaning Ukraine wouldn\u2019t join NATO or other \u201callied institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance\u2019s comments are the most explicit and recent plan for the war proposed to date by the Republican ticket.<\/p>\n
Trump has claimed that if elected, he would end the war. This week, during the presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, he said that if elected in November, he would \u201cget it done before even becoming president.\u201d However, he\u2019s stopped short of explicitly laying out his plan, suggesting that publicizing his strategy would weaken his hand in negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a very exacting plan on how to stop Ukraine and Russia. And I have a certain idea, maybe not a plan, but an idea for China,\u201d Trump said last week in a podcast interview with Lex Fridman, later adding, \u201cBut I can\u2019t give you those plans because if I give you those plans, I\u2019m not going to be able to use them. They\u2019ll be unsuccessful. Part of it\u2019s surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance, in his interview with Ryan, said it was \u201cfake\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d to consider the conflict \u201cthe great humanitarian mission of our time,\u201d adding that it\u2019s a \u201cfairy-tale mindset\u201d to consider the war a battle between \u201cgood versus evil.\u201d During the interview, he also said that Russia \u201cshould not have invaded\u201d Ukraine, but that \u201cUkrainians have got a lot of corruption problems, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since launching an invasion in February 2022, Russia now controls roughly 20 percent of Ukraine\u2019s territory \u2014 including Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014 along with parts of the eastern Donbas region \u2014 and significant additional area stretching from north to south in the east.<\/p>\n
Although some Republican lawmakers are among the strongest supporters of Ukraine, others have been increasingly reluctant to continue providing federal funding toward the war, arguing that the money is better spent on domestic issues such as securing the southern U.S. border.<\/p>\n
Individuals who have discussed Trump\u2019s proposal to resolve the conflict, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, had told The Washington Post in April that his plan consisted of pushing Ukraine to cede Crimea and the Donbas border region to Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of risks to us staying there and trying to encourage the Ukrainians to hold onto Crimea. The question is: How many American lives would it cost to do that? And if the answer is more than zero, then I\u2019m out,\u201d said Vance, a Marine veteran. Although the U.S. military has trained Ukrainian forces in parts of Europe, there have been no U.S. troops in Ukraine since Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion and Biden has pledged there will not be.<\/p>\n
Responding to Vance\u2019s recent comments, the Harris campaign pointed to the vice president\u2019s speech in June at a peace summit.<\/p>\n
Harris referenced Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s cease-fire proposal put forward that month, which would require Ukraine withdraw troops from four Russian-occupied territories, the West lift sanctions imposed on Russia and Ukraine drop its bid for NATO membership. In her speech, Harris said Putin was \u201cnot calling for negotiations. He is calling for surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance also said Europe has \u201cunderfunded this war while American taxpayers have been very generous,\u201d a charge often made by Trump, who falsely said in Tuesday\u2019s debate that the United States had spent $250-$275 billion on Ukraine \u2014 more than twice as much as Europe.<\/p>\n
As of June 30, European nations with far smaller economies had collectively spent and allocated considerably more than the United States, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. As a percentage of its economy, the United States ranks lower than 21 other countries, according to the institute.<\/p>\n
Vance continued to argue that the Biden administration\u2019s policy is to \u201cthrow money at this problem [and] hope the Ukrainians are able to achieve a military victory that even the Ukrainians are saying [they] can\u2019t achieve,\u201d Vance added. \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s policy is yes, be strong, but also be smart. Negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n
A number of Trump advisers have outlined similar plans, including one published during the summer by Keith Kellogg and Fred Fleitz \u2014 who both served as chiefs of staff in Trump\u2019s National Security Council. Their proposal, which they said had been presented to the former president, also included telling Ukraine it would receive no more U.S. aid if it didn\u2019t agree to a peace he negotiated.<\/p>\n
Vance didn\u2019t specify who would control the \u201cdemilitarized zone,\u201d but he said the \u201ccurrent line of demarcation\u201d would remain, meaning Ukraine would not reclaim its territory that Russia now occupies. Throughout the war, Ukraine \u2014 with backing from both the United States and NATO \u2014 has insisted that all of Ukraine\u2019s sovereign territory be returned. NATO has pledged that Ukraine will be part of the alliance and has set it on a path to membership.<\/p>\n
A 10-point peace plan presented to the United Nations in September 2022 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky included a complete Russian withdrawal and restoration to pre-2014 borders, and an international tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes.<\/p>\n
Putin, who claims historical ownership of Ukraine \u2014 a part of the former Soviet Union \u2014 has said he is willing to negotiate but made clear it must be on his terms. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said that any peace plan must recognize \u201cthe reality on the ground,\u201d and Russian retention of territory it now occupies \u2014 crimes for which the International Criminal Court has already issued an arrest warrant for Putin.<\/p>\n
Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) recently laid out a potential Trump administration\u2019s approach to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, saying former president Donald Trump\u2019s handling of the conflict could include establishing a \u201cdemilitarized zone\u201d in Ukrainian territory now occupied by Russia. The approach would mark a dramatic change from the Biden administration\u2019s policy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}