Russia has made “significant concessions” towards US President Donald Trump and has acknowledged there will be some security guarantee in Ukraine, JD Vance has said.
The US Vice President said he remains confident the US can broker an end to the war in Ukraine in an exclusive interview with broadcaster NBC.
Mr Trump has been leading peace efforts to try and quickly solve the gritty war, while Ukraine is working with its European allies to draft potential frameworks for post-war security guarantees for Kyiv.
"I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict," Mr Vance said in comments aired on Sunday.
"They've recognised that they're not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning.
“And importantly, they've acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine."
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In return for ending Russia's attacks, Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, sources told Reuters last week.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview also broadcast on Sunday that a group of nations including United Nations Security Council members should be the guarantors of Ukraine's security.
Mr Lavrov told NBC News that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Trump had discussed the issue of a security guarantee for Ukraine and that Putin had raised the issue of the failed Istanbul discussions of 2022.
At those discussions, Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine's permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and other countries, according to a copy of a draft agreement seen by Reuters in 2022.
Mr Lavrov said that a group including Security Council members should guarantee Ukraine's security. The group could also include Germany and Turkey and other countries, he added.
On Friday, Mr Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia if there was no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, showing frustration at Moscow a week after his meeting with Putin in Alaska.
Mr Vance said sanctions would be considered on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging that new penalties were unlikely to prompt Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Mr Vance pointed to Mr Trump's announcement this month of an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as a punishment for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil as the kind of economic leverage that would be used in pursuit of peace.
"He's tried to make it clear that Russia can be re-invited into the world economy if they stop the killing, but they're going to continue to be isolated if they don't stop the killing," Mr Vance said.
