Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News Sunday that Moscow needs to "wake up and accept reality," as the Trump administration tries to end the war.Show Caption
Vice President JD Vance says Russia needs to "wake up" and come to the negotiating table with Ukraine, echoing President Donald Trump's shift in tone on the full-scale war.Vance's Sept. 28 comments came after Trump claimed Ukraine "is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form," marking a step away from the Republican administration's previous assertions that Ukraine would likely lose some territory in the U.S. effort to broker an end to the more than three-year-long war."The Russians have got to wake up and accept reality here," Vance told Fox News Sunday. "A lot of people are dying. They don't have a lot to show for it."Just a few hours prior to Vance's appearance, Russia launched one of the largest aerial assaults of the war, striking Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early on Sunday. The attacks killed at least four people and injured dozens of others, Reuters reported. Large drone attacks from Russia have tested Ukraine's limited air defenses throughout 2025.The president's about-face on Ukraine's ability to win the war, and on the topic of support for NATO nations such as Poland that have had their airspace breached in recent weeks, came after a day of meetings with U.S. allies during the United Nations General Assembly gathering on Sept. 23.Zelenskyy told Trump there was "good news" on the battlefield and thanked him for selling NATO weapons that are being transferred to Ukraine.Appearing on Fox, Vance said it was Russia that was now on its back foot."How many more people are they willing to lose? How many more people are they willing to kill for very little, if any, gain in the military advantage on the ground there?" the vice president said, adding: "I think the answer is, hopefully not that much, but certainly our attitude here is we're going to keep on working for peace, and we hope the Russians actually wake up to the reality on the ground."Contributing: Francesca Chambers and Zac Anderson, USA TODAY; Reuters.Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
