Zelenskyy took issue with former President Donald Trump’s running mate’s approach to the war in Ukraine, accusing him of advocating for the wartorn country to “give up our territories.”
He called Vance’s position a message that seemed to indicate that “Ukraine must make the sacrifice.”
Shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Vance said: “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”
Since then, he has accused Zelenskyy’s ministers of corruption and argued that the US has given too much aid to Ukraine.
In an opinion piece for The Hill last October, Vance wrote that the US had “overcommitted resources and attention to Ukraine” at the expense of other allies.
Last month, Vance outlined a potential plan for ending the war in Ukraine under a possible Trump administration, with the establishment of a “demilitarized zone” in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.
In exchange, Vance said, Ukraine would need to guarantee it wouldn’t join NATO or other “allied institutions.”
In his interview with The New Yorker, Zelenskyy dismissed this as an “awful idea” and “just sloganeering.”
Zelenskyy said he doesn’t “take Vance’s words seriously,” warning that if such a plan were pursued, it could lead to global conflict.
“That approach would broadcast to the world the following implicit rule: I came, I conquered, now this is mine,” he said.
Zelenskyy went on to recommend that Vance educate himself.
“Let Mr. Vance read up on the history of the Second World War, when a country was forced to give part of its territory to one particular person,” he told The New Yorker.
He continued: “What did that man do? Was he appeased or did he deal a devastating blow to the continent of Europe — to many nations, broadly, and to the Jewish nation in particular?”
Zelenskyy was drawing a parallel to the 1930s policy of appeasement, a diplomatic approach that involved making concessions to Adolf Hitler to avoid war. The strategy did not stop Hitler and the Nazis.
In the interview, Zelenskyy also addressed Trump’s repeated claims that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours, despite his failing to present a specific plan.
Zelenskyy told The New Yorker: “My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”
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