The United States is increasingly hopeful it can help bring an end to the war in Ukraine, Vice President JD Vance said Friday during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — their second in 24 hours.
After meeting in Washington on Thursday, Vance and Meloni traveled to Rome ahead of the Easter holidays. Speaking alongside the Italian leader, Vance told reporters he wanted to brief her on recent developments in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
“I want to update the prime minister on some of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine… even in the past 24 hours, we think we have some interesting things to report on,” Vance told reporters sitting alongside Meloni.
“Since there are the negotiations, I won’t prejudge them, but we do feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war, to a close,” he added.
US pressure mounts as deadline nears
The meeting comes amid escalating diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict, as the Trump administration faces mounting frustration over stalled negotiations.
Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said US President Donald Trump would walk away from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there were clear signs that a deal could be done. The Kremlin responded by acknowledging some positive developments but emphasized that “many complex issues” remain unresolved.
Trump has said he expects a response from Putin in the coming days regarding a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine. This Easter Sunday, 20 April — a rare date shared by both Catholic and Orthodox calendars — falls just ten days before the 100-day mark of Trump’s presidency, a milestone his administration has tied to delivering early results on foreign policy.
During his campaign, Trump vowed to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, later revising that goal to securing a ceasefire within six months. Since taking office, he has intensified pressure on both Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate, threatening stricter sanctions on Russia and a suspension of US military aid to Ukraine.
