Zelenskyy, Vance talk peace for Ukraine and Russia

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss how best to establish a lasting peace in Eastern Europe. The objective is to guarantee a lasting peace so that the region doesn’t dissolve into war again in a couple of years, Vance said. Ukraine needs real security guarantees from the United States before peace can be achieved, Zelenskyy said.

Did Zelenskyy say anything about Ukraine’s needs in the peace talks? U.S. military strength is the key to achieving lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine, Zelenskyy told a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. Ukraine wants to achieve peace, he said. But he clarified that Kyiv is only willing to meet with Russia about ending the war once the United States, Europe, and Ukraine have reached a unified position about what that peace should look like.

What did Russia have to say? Russian officials did not attend the conversations in Munich on Friday, the Kremlin-run news outlet TASS reported. Russia did not send a delegation to the conference because it did not receive an invitation, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Dig deeper: Read my report In The Sift from earlier this week about Trump’s discussions with Putin and Zelenskyy about peace in Ukraine.