The US Vice President has claimed that newspaper misrepresented his remarks, denying he threatened “military action” against Russia
US Vice President J.D. Vance has criticized the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for what he says is a misrepresentation of remarks he made on Ukraine. Vanced refuted the paper’s report published on Thursday that he had said that the US would threaten Russia with either sanctions or military action.
In a summary to an article on Thursday titled “Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal” the paper stated that the US vice president had pledged to impose sanctions and possibly launch military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a peace deal guaranteeing Ukraine’s independence.
The Kremlin sought clarification to Vance’s comments following the initial report. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the remarks were new to Moscow. “These are new elements of the [US] position; we have not heard such statements before,” Peskov said.
Vance pushed back on the claim on Friday, stating that US President Donald Trump would bring peace to the region by ending the conflict, and that his words had been misinterpreted by the WSJ.
“As we’ve always said, American troops should never be put into harm’s way where it doesn’t advance American interests and security,” Vance wrote on X. “The fact that the WSJ twisted my words in the way they did for this story is absurd, but not surprising,” he added.
Vance’s communications director, William Martin, criticized the article, calling it “pure fake news,” posting a transcript of Vance’s interview with the newspaper and argued that the vice president had not made any threats.
In the transcript, Vance had said that Trump would consider a wide range of options in discussions with Russia and Ukraine. He mentioned that “economic tools of leverage” and “military tools of leverage” exist but did not specify any specific actions.
“There’s a whole host of things that we could do. But fundamentally, I think the President wants to have a productive negotiation, both with Putin and with [Vladimir] Zelensky,” the transcript said.
Martin wrote that Vance “simply stated the fact that no one is going to take options away from President Trump as these negotiations begin.”
The Wall Street Journal’s report has since received a community note on X, which states: “JD Vance made no explicit pledge to either sanctions or military actions.” The note links to Martin’s post containing the transcript.
One day after the article was posted Vance and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky met on the sidelines of the Munich security conference on Friday. Following the talks Vance emphasised that Washington’s goal is sustainable peace in Ukraine, while insisting on the start of direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
“It’s important for us to get together and start to have the conversations that are going to be necessary to bring this thing to a close,” he said.
