U.S. Vice President JD Vance has engaged in a war of words with Senate Republican Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over President Donald Trump‘s emerging Ukraine peace deal.
Vance Blames McConnell For Ukraine ‘Mess’
On Monday, Vance took to X to respond to McConnell’s criticism of the Ukraine peace deal. McConnell had cautioned the Trump administration against “appeasing” Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine peace deal.
“This is a ridiculous attack on the president’s team, which has worked tirelessly to clean up the mess in Ukraine that Mitch–always eager to write blank checks to Biden’s foreign policy–left us,” Vance wrote.
McConnell had expressed concerns about the peace deal, which he believes heavily favors Russia. “Putin has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool. If Administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors,” McConnell said in a statement on Friday.
“Rewarding Russian butchery would be disastrous to America’s interests,” McConnell added.
However, late Sunday, McConnell acknowledged on X that Trump is right about “Biden’s weakness” being the reason Putin is “emboldened,” but continued to question if the President is pressing Russia also to make “difficult concessions.”
Criticism Around The Alleged ‘Pro-Russia’ Deal
The Ukraine peace deal has been a topic of intense discussion in recent weeks. Trump has been actively involved in the negotiations, even sending his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to join U.S. peace talks with Ukrainian officials.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also been a key figure in the peace talks, stating that the U.S.-authored peace proposal offers a framework for negotiations based on inputs from Russia and Ukraine. As per a report from Axios, last week, Trump’s 28-point proposed deal would recognize Russia’s control over Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea, and the areas it holds in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, while requiring Ukraine to reduce its military size, block NATO troop deployments, and halt any further NATO integration.
Meanwhile, Reuters on Wednesday reported that the U.S.-backed 28-point Ukraine peace plan was partly based on a Russian "non-paper" submitted to the Trump administration in October, according to three sources. Moscow's document, shared after Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, outlined conditions Russia has long sought, including major territorial concessions that Ukraine has repeatedly rejected.
Ukraine Agrees To ‘Core Terms’ Of Trump’s ‘Fine-Tuned’ Deal
On Saturday, Trump had made it clear that his original peace plan was not the “final offer.” Late Tuesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that the original plan has been “fine-tuned” with inputs from Russia and Ukraine, with “only a few remaining points of disagreement.”
At the same time, Ukraine National Security Secretary Rustem Umerov posted on X, “Our delegations reached a common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.”
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