Vance says White House is working to 'figure out scheduling' for Trump-Putin-Zelensky meeting
"We're now trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict," the vice president said.
J.D. Vance at an event in Washington, D.C. / Brendan Smialowsk (file).
Vice President J.D. Vance said Sunday that the White House is working to "schedule" a meeting between President Donald Trump and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.
"One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with [Volodymyr] Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and [President Trump] has now got that to change," Vance said in an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures."
"We're now trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict," Vance added.
">President Trump is close to securing the most significant diplomatic accomplishment in my lifetime, and he's doing it by focusing on peace and bringing an end to the conflict.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 10, 2025
America is lucky to have this kind of bold leadership at such a pivotal moment in world history. pic.twitter.com/bzwCOZjnz0
Ukraine's European allies are pushing for Kiev to be present at the U.S.-Russia summit scheduled for Friday in Alaska, which was initially billed as a bilateral meeting between Putin and Trump.
The vice president said the country's goal is "to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with."
"It's not going to make anybody super happy, both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it," he added.
The announcement of the summit in Alaska without Zelensky unfolded speculation of a deal forcing Kiev to cede large parts of its territory, something the European Union rejects, although it advocates an agreement between the conflicting countries.
However, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker suggested in statements to CNN that Zelensky could ultimately attend the summit.
E.U. applauds Donald Trump's work
"We welcome President Trump's work to stop the killing in Ukraine" and "stand ready to support this work diplomatically, as well as by upholding our substantive military and financial support to Ukraine" as well as "upholding and imposing restrictive measures against the Russian Federation," the European leaders stated.
Signatories of the declaration include French President Emmanuel Macron, Italyian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Fiedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
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