Vance threatens U.S. troops in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia if Moscow rejects peace deal — The Wall Street Journal
The United States has not ruled out imposing new sanctions on Russia or even deploying troops to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin refuses to agree to a peace deal, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage,” Vance said, adding that the possibility of sending U.S. forces to Ukraine remains “on the table” should Moscow refuse to negotiate.
Vance suggested that talks with Russia could yield a deal “that’s going to shock a lot of people.” He noted that U.S. President Donald Trump may revise his position on certain issues as negotiations unfold but said the administration’s immediate priority is to convince Putin that diplomacy will serve him better than continued fighting.
Vance said it was too soon to say which territories Ukraine might retain or what kind of security commitments the U.S. and other allies could make. “There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence,” he claimed.
Vance also proposed a reset in relations with Russia following a peace deal, arguing that Western sanctions have pushed Moscow into a subordinate role in its relationship with Beijing — something that’s “not in Putin’s interest.”
The Wall Street Journal noted that Vance struck a harsher tone on Russia than U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. On February 12, Hegseth addressed European allies at a NATO meeting in Brussels, signaling a willingness to make concessions in negotiations.
Hegseth described a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders as an “illusionary goal” and dismissed Ukraine’s NATO membership as an “unrealistic outcome” of peace talks. He also ruled out the deployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine as part of any security guarantees.
