Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused US Vice President JD Vance of “somehow justifying [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s actions” while extending an invitation to President Donald Trump to visit Ukraine, according to a “60 Minutes” interview broadcast on 14 April, according to Axios.
The interview was filmed on 11 April – the same day Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Russia – in Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih where 19 people, including nine children, were killed last week in a Russian missile attack near a playground.
“I don’t want to engage in the altered reality that is being presented to me,” Zelenskyy told CBS, addressing Trump’s false claims that Ukraine had started the three-year-old war. “First and foremost, we did not launch an attack,” the Ukrainian president emphasized.
Zelenskyy specifically criticized Vance, who had accused the Ukrainian leader during their White House meeting of showing disrespect and conducting “propaganda tours” for visitors.
“It seems to me that the vice president is somehow justifying Putin’s actions,” Zelenskyy said. “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.'”
Vance’s office rejected Zelenskyy’s accusations. In a statement to Axios on 15 April, Vice President’s press secretary called the remarks “counterproductive” and claimed that Vance had consistently opposed the invasion since 2022.
“Instead of mischaracterizing Vice President Vance’s rhetoric, President Zelenskyy should be focused on bringing this conflict to a peaceful conclusion,” the press secretary said, claiming Vance’s aim was to understand the strategic aims of both Russia and Ukraine to achieve peace.
Reuters quoted Vance defending his comments by claiming his accusations against Ukraine were an attempt to understand “strategic red lines”:
“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.”
Vance suggested that the US allegedly keeps supporting Ukraine:
“I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelenskyy to tell the government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians,” he said.
