JD Vance says his words to Volodymyr Zelensky were merely an “ice breaker” – but they could be seen as extremely provocative
JD Vance has admitted he greeted Volodymyr Zelensky with a provocative greeting when he arrived for his second visit to the White House this week.
The second visit to Washington by Ukraine’s president on Monday cleared the low bar of not ending up in a complete Oval Office meltdown.
His first visit, back in February, saw Vance angrily berating him in front of the media, demanding he be more grateful for American support in the conflict.
But it all could have gone very wrong, if Zelensky had risen to the implicit threat in Vance’s “icebreaker” moment.
“So President Zelensky walked into the oval office,” he told Fox News. “I was chatting with him, with the President, with some of the senior Ukrainian delegation.
“I said: ‘Mr President, so long as you behave, I won’t say anything.'”
Vance added that Zelensky had “sort of chuckled a little bit and it was a good little ice breaker.”
While Vance insists it was merely an ice breaker, given the unprecedented blowup in the Oval Office – provoked largely by himself – during Zelensky’s previous visit, his words could easily have been seen as provocative or threatening.
Vance went on to say Europe should “carry the burden” and take the “lion’s share” of the responsibility for safeguarding Ukraine.
And Defence Undersecretary for Policy, Eldridge Colby said last night that American involvement in future peacekeeping missions would be “minimal.”
Following March’s unpleasant spectacle, Vance and Donald Trump were branded “Putin’s useful idiots” by the Vice President’s own cousin.
Nate Vance, the vice-president’s cousin, who has reportedly fought for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, accused Trump and Vance of “ambushing” Zelensky in order to “placate” Putin.
Speaking to Le Figaro, Vance said: “ Donald Trump and my cousin clearly believe they can placate Vladimir Putin. They are wrong. The Russians are not about to forget our support for Ukraine.” Nate, who returned to the United States in January, continued: “We are Vladimir Putin’s useful idiots.”
The Vice President’s cousin apparently travelled to Ukraine just three weeks after the country was invaded in February 2022 and enlisted in the “Da Vinci Wolves” battalion, which saw action in some of the conflict’s bloodiest battles to date.