US senior officials disappointed with Russia’s unyielding stance on Ukraine, says The Guardian

U.S. Vice President JD Vance has said that Russia is asking for “too much” in its negotiations with Ukraine.

Speaking at a security conference of senior military and diplomatic leaders in Washington, the US vice-president said that the White House is focused on getting the two sides to hold direct talks and is ready to walk away if certain benchmarks are not reached.

“I wouldn’t say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution,” Vance said. “What I would say is, right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think they’re asking for too much. OK?”

Asked about those comments later on Wednesday, Donald Trump said: “It’s possible that’s right. We are getting to a point where some decisions are going to have to be made. I’m not happy about it.”

As noted by The Guardian, senior administration officials, including Vance and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, are said to be growing more frustrated over Russia’s inflexibility in discussions to end the war. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, has held four rounds of direct talks with Putin, but those have not yielded concrete concessions from the Russian side.

During his remarks, Vance reiterated the threat that the White House would “walk away if [Trump] thinks he’s not making progress.”

“In particular, the step that we would like to make right now is we would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another,” he said. “Obviously, the United States is happy to participate in those conversations, but it’s very important for the Russians and the Ukrainians to start talking to one another. We think that is the next big step that we would like to take.”