Russia has allegedly made “significant concessions,” according to Vance

According to US Vice President J.D. Vance, Russia has made "significant concessions" for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine . "They were actually willing to be flexible on some of their core demands. They talked about what would be necessary to end the war," Vance said in an NBC interview. Russia has agreed "that Ukraine will retain its territorial integrity after the war. They have recognized that they cannot install a puppet regime in Kyiv."

Russia began its war of aggression against its neighbor on February 24, 2022. Vance now said he thought the Russians had made significant concessions to Trump "for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict."

Vance reiterated that the US would not send troops to enforce a peace agreement. "The president has been very clear. There will be no ground troops in Ukraine." But the US would continue to play an active role to ensure that the Ukrainians had the security guarantees and confidence they needed to end the war on their side—and that the Russians felt they could end the war on their side.

However, hopes for an imminent meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, as promised by US President Donald Trump, have largely vanished following statements from Moscow. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had stated that such a meeting would have to be well prepared and repeated familiar demands that were more reminiscent of conditions for Ukraine's surrender than a genuine peace offer.

There has been little progress so far in the direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow at a lower level, which have been ongoing since May.

Trump said on Friday, following ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine, that a peace agreement between the two countries could take weeks. He thought the next two weeks would reveal which direction things were headed.