File picture of United States Vice-President J.D. Vance, second right, meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, third left, during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany | Photo Credit: AP
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said U.S. President Donald Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space”, Vice President J.D. Vance on Wednesday (February 19, 2025) quickly admonished the Ukrainian about the perils of publicly criticising the new president.
Mr. Zelenskyy also said he would like Mr. Trump’s team “to be more truthful” as responded to a series of claims that Mr. Trump made a day earlier, including suggesting that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which enters its fourth year next week.
Mr. Vance told the Daily Mail that Mr. Zelenskyy’s criticism of Mr. Trump was not helping his cause.
“The idea that Zelenskyy 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,” Mr. Vance said.
Mr. Trump later said Mr. Zelenskyy should have worked out a deal earlier. “Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Vance and Mr. Zelenskyy met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where the U.S. V-P said that the U.S. wants “lasting peace” in East Europe.
Mr. Zelenskyy had hailed a “good conversation”, saying the encounter with Mr. Vance was “our first meeting, not last, I’m sure”.
“We are ready to move as quickly as possible towards a real and guaranteed peace,” Mr. Zelenskyy later wrote on X, adding that an envoy from Washington would visit Kyiv.
Published – February 20, 2025 07:11 am IST
