Vice President JD Vance has detailed the moment it all went wrong during the heated exchange between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last week.
President TrumpĀ invited Ukrainian presidentĀ ZelenskyyĀ to the White House last week (February 28) in the hope of discussing a peace deal that would see the end ofĀ RussiaāsĀ invasion of Ukraine.
In a fiery conversation broadcast live acrossĀ the world, the 47th POTUS accused Zelenskyy ofĀ āgambling with World War 3ā, while Vance insisted that Zelenskyy was treating both Trump and the US with disrespect and persistently called on the Ukrainian to āthankā the president.
āI think itās disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American mediaā¦You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,ā Vance added.
The vice president has since spoken out about the infamous Oval Office moment, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity: āI do think that there was just a certain sense of ā there was a lack of respect. There was a certain sense of entitlement.ā
Vance claimed he had hoped to have had the conversation with Zelenskyy in private, but that came to no avail.
He continued: āThe president was like, ānope, actually, I donāt want to have it in private anymore. I want to have this actual conversation in public for the American people to seeā.
It was quite the spectacle in the Oval Office (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
āThe president has set a very clear goal for his administration. He wants the killing to stop.
āAnd I think that itās very important that President Zelensky and of course, President Putin, too, theyāve both got to come to the negotiating table. And thatās ultimately where things broke apart.
āI really donāt care what President Zelensky says about me or anybody else. But he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process that President Trump has said is the policy of the American people and of their president.ā
Vance went on to say during the āHannityā segment that the war inĀ UkraineĀ ācannot go on foreverā.
JD Vance has given his take (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The VP added: āThere arenāt enough Ukrainian lives, there isnāt enough American money, and there isnāt enough ammunition to fund this thing indefinitely.
āThe only realistic pathway to bring this thing to a settlement is President Trumpās pathway. We encourage both President Zelensky andĀ President PutinĀ to follow that path.ā
Vanceās latest comments come asĀ Trump has paused all US military aid being sent to UkraineĀ to assist on the frontline.