Vance: Russia, Ukraine face 'very big gulf' in peace plan demands

Vice President Vance said Russia and Ukraine both face a “very big gulf” as the two countries make demands to negotiate to end the war.

Vance sat for an interview with Fox News Digital, highlighting the Trump administration’s foreign policy efforts and attempts to end the war.

President Trump has sought to cease fighting and get Russia and Ukraine to agree to a deal since taking office in January, but the task has proven difficult.

“He would like to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a durable solution where you don’t have 5,000 people dying every single week on both sides of that conflict,” Vance said.

He told the outlet that the first step in ending the war is to get “each of them to make a peace proposal.”

“And that’s actually happened. The Ukrainians have said, ‘This is what we want.’ The Russians have said, ‘This is what we want,’” Vance said. “And now, the work of diplomacy is to try to sort of bring these two sides closer together.”

“Because there’s a very big gulf between what the Russians want and what the Ukrainians want.”

Russia announced Monday that its President Vladimir Putin had ordered a temporary ceasefire from May 8 to 11 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Trump has shown growing impatience with Putin over ending the war. He questioned over the weekend if Putin was stringing him along, shortly after Russia launched deadly strikes on Ukraine.

The U.S. is pushing a peace proposal that would freeze the front lines of the war, which would leave much of eastern Ukraine in Russian control. The proposal also would prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. It’s unclear what security guarantees would be offered to Ukraine under the deal.

Putin has demanded official recognition of several Ukrainian territories, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is refusing to give up his country's land. Ukraine has also dismissed Putin’s call for the three-day pause in fighting in May.

Vance’s conversation with Fox comes as the administration marks its 100th day in office. He noted that while the administration was able to accomplish a lot, particularly in reversing Biden-era actions, the next 100 days are going to require the help of Congress and international partners stepping up to the plate.

“I have great confidence in Congress. I have some confidence in our international partners,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes.”