JD Vance: Russia has refused peace talks with Ukraine and US

US Vice President JD Vance has stated that in recent weeks, Russia has refused to participate in bilateral meetings with Ukraine or trilateral ones involving the US.

Source: Vance in an interview with Fox News, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Vance was commenting on a recent statement by US President Donald Trump in which Trump was critical of Russia's situation and suggested that Ukraine could regain territory occupied by Russian forces.

Vance said Trump's comments reflect "what's happening on the ground" in that Russia is losing a significant number of troops and making no substantial territorial gains.

Quote: "We remain committed to peace, but it takes two to tango. And unfortunately, what we've seen over the last couple of weeks is that the Russians have refused to sit down with any bilateral meetings with the Ukrainians. They've refused to sit down with any trilateral meetings where the president or some other member of the [US] administration could sit down with the Russians and the Ukrainians."

More details: Vance called on Russia to "wake up and accept reality" – a reality in which they are suffering heavy losses and "don't have a lot to show for it".

Quote: "How many more people are they willing to lose, how many more people they are willing to kill for very little, if any, gain in the military advantage on the ground there? And the answer is, hopefully, not that much. But certainly, our attitude here is: we're going to keep on working for peace and we hope the Russians actually wake up to the reality on the ground."

Background:

• On 23 September, Trump unexpectedly said Ukraine could regain all of its territories and "maybe even go further".
• European officials are reported to have reacted with cautious optimism to the US president's social media post.

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