Former President Donald Trump has said he would quickly end the Russia-Ukraine war upon returning to the White House. His running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, offered a potential plan for doing so.
While appearing on the Shawn Ryan Show, Vance said Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, would engage in talks soon after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election. The president-elect then would enter negotiations understanding that Russia, Ukraine and Europe want the war to end.
"So, I think what this looks like is Trump sits down, he says to the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Europeans 'You guys need to figure out what does a peaceful settlement look like?' " Vance told Ryan. "And what it probably looks like is the current line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine, that becomes like a demilitarized zone."
The GOP vice-presidential nominee added that the demilitarized zone would be "heavily fortified so the Russians don't invade again."
"Ukraine retains its independent sovereignty, Russia gets the guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine — it doesn't join NATO, it doesn't join some of these, sort of, allied institutions, and I think that's ultimately what this looks like," he said.
Vance said he thinks Trump will be able to "come to a deal very quickly" because "they're scared of him in Russia, they're worried about him in Europe because they know he actually means what he says."
"The Russians, Ukrainians, the Europeans are all saying, 'We can't fight this war forever.' But why the hell are you fighting it for another day if all of them are trying to find a way to solve it? The answer is … you're not going to solve the war but you can at least bring the thing to a stop," Vance said.
"The answer is, Joe Biden is asleep at the wheel, Kamala Harris doesn't know what the hell she's doing, and so, their policy is throw money at this problem, hope the Ukrainians are able to achieve a military victory that even the Ukrainians are saying 'We can't achieve.'
"Donald Trump's policy is, 'Yes to be strong but also be smart. Negotiate.' "
Vance credited Trump for the way he looks at international diplomacy,
"One thing I'll say about the president, Republicans ... we like to give Trump credit, justifiably so, for being strong. I don't think that we give the president enough credit for smart diplomacy. It's not just strength, it's also intelligence. He had both of those things, and that's why we had a peaceful world," Vance said.
"What Trump was really good at was saying, 'OK, yeah, this guy is a screwball, this guy is a bad person but sometimes you have to deal with screwballs and bad people. I mean, in World War II, we allied with Joseph Stalin to beat Adolf Hitler. We can engage in diplomacy even with very bad guys. And because of that, I think he was able to keep the world at peace for a very long time."
Ukraine has said that any peace deal must invalidate the September 2022 annexations of its four regions — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — and that Crimea must once again be considered part of Ukraine.
The Kremlin has said Ukraine must accept the September 2022 annexations.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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