The Republican vice president candidate has outlined what peace talks with Russia might look like
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a concrete proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, has claimed.
Trump has repeatedly said he would stop the fighting “in 24 hours” if elected, most recently at Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ candidate to succeed President Joe Biden.
To end the war, “you need somebody that first of all people are terrified of,” Vance told former US Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Shawn Ryan, in a podcast interview. “You need to be worried that if Donald Trump – or God forbid, Kamala Harris – says something, that they actually mean it. But you believe it with Donald Trump, you don’t believe that with Kamala Harris. That’s deterrence.”
Asked about what a Trump peace proposal would look like, Vance outlined a scenario he considered probable. The current line of contact would become a demilitarized zone, “heavily fortified so Russia doesn’t invade again,” he told Ryan.
Read more
Ukraine would get to keep its independence and sovereignty, but “Russia gets a guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine – it doesn’t join NATO” or other similar institutions, Vance said. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s reconstruction would have to be funded primarily by Germany and EU countries, whom Vance accused of underwriting Kiev’s war effort.