JD Vance Says Putin 'Doesn't Quite Know How To Get Out Of The War': 'Doesn't Have a Strategy Himself'

Vice President JD Vance said on Monday he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin "doesn't quite know how to get out the war" in Ukraine as Donald Trump is set to again push for a ceasefire in a phone call.

"He's got a million men under arms, he's reengineered his entire economy. I'm not sure that Vladimir Putin has a strategy himself on how to unwind the war," Vance told reporters aboard Air Force Two after being received by Pope Leo XIV.

Vance went on to say that Trump will ask Putin if he's serious about ending the war, adding that talks have reached an "impasse." "I think the president is going to say to President Putin, look, 'Are you serious? Are you real about this?'" he added, warning that the U.S. is "more than open to walking away" from the talks if no agreement is reached soon.

Trump is set to talk to both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia "highly values" and is "grateful to the American" side, adding that if the Trump administration can "help to achieve our goals through peaceful means, then this is indeed preferable."

The call is set to take place after proposed talks in Istanbul collapsed last week following Putin's refusal to attend. Asked if he was disappointed by press during a meeting in Qatar, Trump said he wasn't. "I actually said, why would he go if I'm not going? Because I wasn't going to go. I wasn't planning to go. I would go, but I wasn't planning to go. And I said, I don't think he's going to go if I don't go. And that's turned out to be right."

Later aboard the Air Force One Trump told reporters that he doesn't believe "anything is going to happen whether you like it or not before Putin and I get together," according to Axios' Barak Ravid.

Putin had proposed restarting direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul "without any preconditions." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky challenged Putin to attend in person and said he would be there. However, the Kremlin later said Putin wouldn't attend and that negotiations will be led by aide Vladimir Medinsky, who oversaw failed negotitations in March 2022, weeks after Russia invaded the country. The two parties agreed to exchange prisoners of war but there not seemed to be substantive progress on ending the war.