"Putin doesn't want peace, he wants Ukraine": former US vice president mocks Trump's policies
Date: 2025-05-06 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WORLD
Former US Vice President Mike Pence criticized US President Donald Trump for his "unstable" support for Ukraine and mocked the American president's repeated assurances that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin allegedly "wants peace."
"If the last three years have taught us anything, it's that Vladimir Putin doesn't want peace; he wants Ukraine. And the fact that we're almost two months into a ceasefire that Ukraine agreed to, and Russia continues to delay and make excuses, proves that point," Pence told CNN.
Pence also said that Putin "only understands force," so the US must make clear its continued support for Ukraine.
"That's why we need to make clear at this moment that the United States will continue to lead the free world to provide Ukraine with the military support it needs to repel a Russian invasion and achieve a just and lasting peace," he said.
Pence also added that he believes the Trump administration's "faltering support" over the past few months has "only emboldened Russia."
He believes that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, it's only a matter of time before Russia invades a NATO member state, and then "our men and women in uniform will have to go and fight him."
"I hold to the old Reagan doctrine that if you're willing to fight our enemies on their own soil, we'll give you the means to fight them there so we don't have to fight them," he said.
Pence said the contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February was "unfortunate."
"I thought President Zelenskyy was unwise to make his argument to the media in the Oval Office, and I thought the way the president and the administration responded at that point was unfortunate," he said.
At the same time, he said the Trump-Zelensky meeting in the Vatican "seems to have reopened the dialogue."
He also added that the subsoil agreement signed by Ukraine and the U.S. last week "sends a deafening signal to Moscow that America and Ukraine are here to stay."
