Vice President J.D. Vance on Wednesday warned the Ukrainian president against attacking President Donald Trump, saying that ‘badmouthing’ him in public would only backfire.
Vance spoke to DailyMail.com hours after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky accused Trump of living in a Russian-made ‘disinformation space.’
The extraordinary language on both sides comes at a critical time in the war between Ukraine and Russia, as Trump pushes for a speedy resolution.
‘The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by bad mouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the President will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,’ said Vance during an exclusive interview in his West Wing office.
At the same time, Trump weighed in with his own attack on Truth Social.
‘A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,’ he wrote.
Vance said Zelensky had been getting ‘bad advice’ on how to deal with the new administration and for the past three years had been told he could do nothing wrong.
‘We obviously love the Ukrainian people. We admire the bravery of the soldiers, but we obviously think that this war needs to come to a rapid close,’ he continued.
‘That is the policy of the president United States. It is not based on Russian disinformation. It’s based on the fact that Donald Trump, I think, knows a lot about geopolitics and has a very strong view, and has had a strong view for a very long time.’
Trump kickstarted the new push for peace last week with a 90-minute call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It triggered panic in Kyiv that it was being behind in a deal, as American officials began to lay out outlines of an agreement, suggesting that Ukraine would not be allowed to join NATO.
Zelensky met with Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last week.
But he let rip during a press conference on Wednesday morning, a day after senior U.S. and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia.
‘Unfortunately, President Trump–I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us – unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,’ he said.
Russian troops launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
The U.S. and European nations flooded Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons and aid.
However, the Trump administration has made clear that such support cannot last for ever.
Zelensky made clear that he believes Trump is echoing a Russian playbook in his attack.
He said it was America’s right to discuss bilateral issues, but that the US had helped Putin ‘to break out of years of isolation.’
Trump shrugged off Ukrainian worries at his own Mar-a-Lago press conference on Tuesday.
He claimed that Zelensky’s approval rating stood at four percent and told reporters that Ukraine ‘should have never started’ the war.