The Kremlin leadership expressed hope on Friday that the US would clarify Vice President J.D. Vance’s statements, in which he mentioned that Washington has both military and economic leverage to pressure Russia into a “good peace agreement with Ukraine”.
Following Washington’s criticism from some European countries after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, Vance told the Wall Street Journal in an interview ahead of the Munich Security Conference that the US has tools at its disposal to move Russia towards a ceasefire agreement.
“There are economic levers and, of course, military levers that we could use” Vance said ahead of the Munich Security Conference, when asked about the mention of military levers.
In response to the mention of military levers, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskow stated that Moscow wants to know more. “That was a new element in the US position. We have never heard such formulations, they have never been expressed” Peskow said to journalists.
“Therefore, we are naturally hoping to get more clarity in our contacts.”
Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that Russian officials would not attend the Munich Security Conference as Russia was not invited and described the event as a “destructive pro-Ukrainian gathering”.