Vance stated that russia can't expect to be given territory it hasn't conquered yet

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said this in an interview with Fox News, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

“We knew that russia would ask for too much because russia's perception of the war is that on the ground, they're winning. And of course, the Ukrainians would like to do a cease-fire in part because things have not been going so well for the Ukrainians the last few months. And our attitude is: we don't want Ukraine to collapse. We obviously want Ukraine to remain a sovereign country, but russia can't expect to be given territory that they haven't even conquered yet. And that is one of the things that they have put down in that initial peace plan”, - Vance noted.

He also called it progress that russia and Ukraine are engaged in negotiations and offering “concrete peace plans”. At the same time, Vance emphasized that the U.S. will withdraw from the negotiations if it becomes clear that “the russians are not participating in the talks and are not acting in good faith”.

“And if that happens, we're going to walk away. The president's going to say, 'We are out of this thing'”, - Vance noted.

“What that is going to mean, fundamentally, I think, is that both russia and Ukraine are going to be left to settle this thing without the advice and without the mediation of the United States. I don’t think that’s good for anybody, I don't think it's good for us, I don't think for russia or Ukraine”, - he emphasized.

Vance added that, in his opinion, there are “some diplomatic breakthroughs” in resolving the russian-Ukrainian war.

“But we've got to try to get these sides a little bit closer together to achieve a lasting peace. We are not there yet. We'll keep working on it until we decide that we ultimately can’t make any more progress”, - the U.S. Vice President stressed.