Senator JD Vance has repeatedly argued for negotiating an end to the conflict between Kiev and Moscow<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator JD Vance, the Ohio Republican nominated to be Donald Trump\u2019s running mate in the November US presidential election, has made his mark on Capitol Hill by lambasting Washington\u2019s open-ended commitment to funding Kiev. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump announced his nomination for vice-president on Monday evening, on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vance, the best-selling author of \u2018Hillbilly Elegy\u2019, elected to the Senate in 2022, is known for seeing US support for Israel, where he remains a hawk, and Ukraine, in very different lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI certainly admire the Ukrainians who are fighting against Russia, but I do not think that it is in America\u2019s interest to continue to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine,\u201d Vance said in May, in a speech at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In late April, when the Senate approved a $61 billion package of new military aid to Ukraine, Vance invoked his experience in the military to rebuke his colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI served my country honorably, and I saw when I went to Iraq that I had been lied to,\u201d he said on the Senate floor, adding that \u201cthe promises of the foreign policy establishment of this country were a complete joke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US has \u2018no viable plan\u2019 for Ukraine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The US insistence on not negotiating with Russia is \u201cabsurd\u201d<\/em> and Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s goal of restoring Ukraine\u2019s 1991 borders is \u201cfantastical,\u201d<\/em> Vance wrote in an op-ed<\/a> in the New York Times. He has urged Kiev to hold on until some kind of peace can be brokered by Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Vance argued that the White House\u2019s math on Ukraine just doesn\u2019t add up. President Joe Biden \u201cfailed to articulate even basic facts\u201d<\/em> about the reality on the ground, Vance wrote, and the Biden administration \u201chas no viable plan for the Ukrainians to win this war.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUkraine\u2019s challenge is not the GOP; it\u2019s math,\u201d<\/em> the Ohio Republican wrote. \u201cUkraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more mat\u00e9riel than the United States can provide.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe notion that we should prolong a bloody and gruesome war because it\u2019s been good for American business is grotesque. We can and should rebuild our industrial base without shipping its products to a foreign conflict,\u201d<\/em> he wrote, taking aim at the White House\u2019s argument that funding Kiev was good for the US military industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukraine is \u2018functionally destroyed\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone with a brain in their head knows that this is going to end with negotiations,\u201d<\/em> Vance told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper in April, prior to the Senate vote. \u201cUkraine is functionally destroyed as a country. The average age of a soldier in their army is 43 \u2013 that\u2019s older than me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to bring the killing to a stop and that\u2019s what American leadership should be doing, not writing more blank checks to the war,\u201d<\/em> he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia has \u2018distinct interests\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve never once argued that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a kind and friendly person. I\u2019ve argued that he\u2019s a person with distinct interests, and the United States has to respond to that person with distinct interests,\u201d<\/em> Vance said in February, at the Munich Security Conference. Aid to Kiev is a \u2018<\/strong>time bomb\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/strong> against Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Vance has taken aim at the latest US Ukraine aid bill, which was passed in April, arguing that it amounted to a \u201ctime bomb\u201d<\/em> against Trump should the Republican get re-elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Noting that funding under the bill would expire \u201cnearly a year into the possible second term of President Trump,\u201d<\/em> Vance suggested the Democrats could impeach him should he pause or cancel that aid in order to pressure Kiev into negotiating. The bill was \u201can attempt by the foreign policy blob\/Deep State to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Zelensky\u2019s argument is \u2018disgraceful\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last December, Vance accused Vladimir Zelensky of \u201clecturing\u201d<\/em> Americans and \u201cdemanding\u201d<\/em> more of their taxpayer dollars. Commenting on a speech given by the Ukrainian leader during a visit to Washington, in which he suggested the US lawmakers opposing the bill were helping Russia, Vance said that \u201cif you want to secure your border first, you are actually a Putin puppet: He said this publicly today.\u201d<\/em> The Ohio Republican called such behavior \u201c<\/em>disgraceful<\/a>\u201d<\/em> and \u201cgrotesque.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukraine as Democrats\u2019 \u2018payback\u2019 for 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In October, Vance framed the ruling Democrats\u2019 insistence on funding Ukraine as part of their obsession with alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections \u2013 conclusively proven to have been an invention of Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/em>He also urged European members of NATO to boost their military manufacturing so Washington could focus on China. \u201cWe want Europe to be successful, but Europe has got to take a bigger role in its own security. You can\u2019t do that without industry,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n