Feb. 21—U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance responded to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent public attacks on President Donald Trump, which included pronouncing that Trump “lives in this disinformation space” of Russian propaganda. Vance delivered the stern warning in a Fe.b 18 interview with the National Pulse, in which he described Zelenskyy’s approach as “disgraceful” and counterproductive, emphasizing that such tactics could jeopardize Ukraine’s relationship with its most crucial ally. “This is not a good way to deal with President Trump,” he said pointedly.

“Zelenskyy is getting really bad advice, and I don’t know from whom,” Vance said. “He’s not dealing with Joe Biden and the Biden administration anymore. He’s dealing with Donald Trump and the Trump administration…. The idea that he’s going to litigate his disagreements with the president in the public square…. This is not a good way to deal with President Trump. Of course, the Ukrainians are going to have their perspective. The way to surface that is in a private discussion with American diplomats…. he’s attacking the only reason [Donald Trump] this country exists, publicly, right now. And it’s disgraceful. And it’s not something that is going to move the President of the United States. In fact, it’s going to have the opposite effect.”

Vance reaffirmed Trump’s policy on Ukraine: the war must end. He further asserted that U.S. policy now requires that Ukraine have elections.

“The President won the election. He won it convincingly. And he’s made clear that American policy is to stop the killing and bring the war to a close,” Vance said. Trump, he said, “has an incredible amount of sympathy and admiration for the people of Ukraine. He wants the killing to stop because he doesn’t want innocent Ukrainians to keep losing their lives. So I think he very much thinks about this from the perspective, not just, of course, of his obligations to the United States, but also he just. He wants the brutality and the killing to stop.”

Further, Trump “has said the goal of administration policy is to end the conflict,” Vance stressed. “So now, you know that has to happen. Right. Zelenskyy has to take that seriously. Our European allies have to take that seriously. That is the goal of administration policy. You’re not going to move the President away from that goal. You’re not going to change his mind, certainly not by attacking him publicly in the media.”