Vance Says Putin Lacks Exit Strategy in Ukraine War

Vance suggested Putin may not know how to bring the Ukraine war to a close, as Trump pressed the Russian leader to agree to a cease-fire in a high-stakes call.

Vice President JD Vance talks to reporters on board of the Air Force Two at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome on May 19, 2025. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Vice President JD Vance said on May 19 that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to lack a clear strategy to end the war in Ukraine.

His remarks came as President Donald Trump prepared for a critical phone call with the Kremlin leader aimed at brokering a cease-fire in the long-running conflict.

“I’m not sure that Vladimir Putin has a strategy himself for how to unwind the war,” Vance told reporters aboard Air Force Two on May 19 before leaving Rome.

Speaking shortly after a private audience with Pope Leo XIV and high-level meetings at the Vatican, Vance said the peace process was at a standstill.

“We’re at a point where we’re hitting an impasse, and that’s why the president is talking to him on the phone,” he said. “I think, honestly, that President Putin, he doesn’t quite know how to get out of the war.”

Vance’s remarks came ahead of the two-hour Trump–Putin call, which the White House confirmed began at 10 a.m. on May 19, and Trump later said in a statement “went very well.”

“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”

Several days earlier, Trump announced he would be speaking to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in back-to-back calls in a bid to stop what he said was a “‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week.”

Trump has been pushing for an end to the Russia–Ukraine conflict but, so far, to little avail. He previously said that Putin may not be sincere in seeking peace, and his May 19 call with the Russian leader offered some clarification.

“The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent,” Trump said of his call with the Russian leader. “If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later. Russia wants to do large-scale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree.”

Trump said he spoke briefly with Zelenskyy after his call with Putin and that “negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately,” with the Vatican being a possible venue for talks.

Vance, meanwhile, told reporters aboard Air Force Two that a key obstacle to the peace process is a “fundamental mistrust” between the West and Russia, which the vice president described as a legacy of past administrations that Trump is eager to correct. At the same time, it “takes two to tango,” Vance said, adding that if Russia is unwilling to work with the Trump administration in good faith, then the United States might pull back from its role as peace broker.

“I know the president is willing to do that, but if Russia is not willing to do that, then we’re eventually just going to have to say, ‘This is not our war,’” Vance said.

He previously said that Washington will “walk away” from talks if there’s no meaningful progress.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a May 19 briefing ahead of the Trump–Putin call that Trump has grown “weary and frustrated” with both sides of the conflict and wants a cease-fire as soon as possible.

Trump’s call with Putin follows a May 16 summit in Istanbul—the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. That meeting produced a prisoner exchange agreement but no broader cease-fire deal. Putin did not attend, and Zelenskyy, whose request for a face-to-face meeting was rejected, sent a lower-level delegation.