The Kremlin leadership stated on Friday that it hopes the US would clarify the statements made by Vice President J.D. Vance, in which Washington claimed to have both military and economic leverage to pressure Russia into a “good peace agreement with Ukraine”.
Following 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 prior to the Munich Security Conference that the US has tools at its disposal to move Russia towards a ceasefire in the war.
“There are economic levers and, of course, military levers that the US could use” Vance said ahead of the Munich Security Conference.
When asked about the mention of military levers, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskow stated that Moscow would like to know more. “That was a new element in the US position. We’ve never heard such formulations, they’ve never been expressed” Peskow told journalists.
“Therefore, we naturally hope to get more clarity in our contacts.”
Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that Russian officials would not attend the Munich Security Conference, as Russia was not invited and viewed the event as a “destructive, pro-Ukrainian gathering”.