Vance: Russia-Ukraine war 'is not our war, it's Joe Biden's war'

President Trump says that talks will begin immediately. Zelensky has showed up at the negotiating table. The question now Will Putin?

The things the president thinks frankly stupid, that, that we should be able to move beyond the mistakes that have been made in the past, but that takes two to tango. I know the president's willing to do that, but if Russia is not willing to then we're eventually just going this is not our war. It's Joe Biden's war, it's Vladimir Putin's war.

It's not our war. We're going to try to end it. But if we can't end it, we're eventually going to say, you know what?

That was worth a try, but we're not doing any more har All right. Our panel's here. And we're also joined by CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who's live at the white House.

Jeff, let me start with you on what we're learning in the wa of this phone call. How has President Trump in characterizing it, and how is that different from how the Russian president has been talking about it? As you said, President Trump is essentially giving this two hour phone call a glowing re I mean, just reading this readout of the phone call.

You would think that things are toward a cease fire, but it also sounds like a different season as we head into summer here. Now, as we head into the month o another month of fighting. This is exactly where the conversations were a few mon negotiating, discussions about settlements, about going into a cease fire di rather than negotiating a cease fire itself.

so the what I'm struck by Casey is all last week, as the president traveled throughout the Middle E as we traveled along with him on on Friday, he said specifically, he said, we will have to meet Vladimir Pu President Trump, we will have to he and I will meet and we'll sol But today, in the statement of the presiden to said that, you know, it's essentially said that to Russia and Ukraine will have to negotiate this out themselves. So something has changed a bit h But the president that the US pr clearly is not, pressuring, Puti There was no sign of leverage. And the bottom line, there was also no response, as far as we can tell about Vlad Putin wanting to meet Donald Trump ended last week wanting to meet face to face with Vladimir Putin.

There was n such a discussion of that. So the bottom line is, it seems like we are a long way from even a ceasefire, let alone a sustained peace here But look, any conversation obviously, is a good conversatio to have. Both parties are talkin But at the end of the day here, I'm not sure what was gained by There certainly were no significant breakthroughs, if any breakthroughs at all.

All right. Jeff Zeleny reporting for us. Fascinating stuff there, Jeff.

Thank you very much. All right. Our panel joins us no CNN anchor chief national securi analyst Jim Sciutto, CNN contributor, New York Times journalist and podcast host Lulu Garcia Navarro, former communications director for the DNC, Bolasie and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Brad T Welcome to all of you.

Thank you all for being here. Jim Sciutto, let me start with y I was reading a little bit into how JD Vance was was framing tha I mean, on the one hand, the much sunnier meeting with Vladimir Zelensky, right. Of course, it was Vance who, if anyone you know, really talks that Oval Office meeting, he made it worse But on the other hand, what he said there on the plane leave the door open to them sayi this is not our war and potentially ceasing to offer us support.

What did yo So I heard quite the same thing. And it's interesting because I spoke to a senior European diplomat and I said, what are your takeaways from thi And the first one was, it looks like the U. S.

is stepping back from the talks, making it clear this is between Russia and Ukrai And it's really not not our game The second piece is that this di was disappointed that President Trump did not bring up U. S. sanctions on Russia, because the obvious point here i Russia still has not agreed to a cease fire, that Ukraine agreed two weeks ag and that the president demanded weeks ago.

And hanging over this had always been the threat that the U. S. would apply a stick of sanctions But even with another call, well you didn't get that deliverable.

still no threat of sanctions. And really, the message seems to be I'm going to let the duke it out, right. That kind of thing, which is, from from the European perspecti it's a disappointment, right?

Because they want they do want to push these push these forward. And the administration position seems to be stepping back. I mean, wouldn't it be wonderful you could just say, I'm not going to do anything abo and it would all go away?

But that's not what's happened. We see that in Gaza. I mean, the war there is expandi There was a promise that there was going to be a cea fire under Donald Trump.

He said it was, really important to end that war And now that war is again expand And we're seeing something simil with Ukraine. If the United States just says, you know what? I'm going to let this go.

Whatever way it's going to go, it doesn't mean the war goes awa It doesn't mean that the threats It doesn't mean that Russia's, you know, aggression goes away. It simply means that the United is just stepping back and washing your hands of it. Brett.

Todd. I mean, we've seen the MAGA wing of the Republican Party pus for this conflict to be ended fo support, in many cases for the Ukraine war, to stop. but of course, the premise, the reason why we've spent so much money on it already is that it's this is a representation of defense of the west, of the Western way of living.

How do you look at what President Trump is doing he and how much of it relates to electoral politics he Well, you know, I think first of all, it's a message Trump inherited, the one he didn't like really goes back all the way to when Crimea, when Russia took Crimea and Obam let him take it. We've sort of all been trying to get out of that mess since then. I think the Trump strategy so far has been to try to let Russia save face and let Ukraine save sovereignty and that's been a tough needle t All the while, our European allies are doing nothing to get themselves off the Russian.

That dependance on Russian oil and gas long term. it's almost as if you're cheering for success and not willing to pay for it. so I think that perhaps over, ov if the US does step back somehow, there could be a resett that US European axis so that the Europeans get fully on board with, with, with cutting Russia off lo not just this month.

Mo how do you look at this. And and again, I mean, Brad refe Obama Republicans will blame Oba for a lot of this. And you heard JD Vance say, this is Joe Biden's war.

Yeah. I mean, look, and to pick up something on something that Lulu Donald Trump ran on a promise to stop wars. The two biggest conflicts in the haven't stopped.

They haven't been contained. They have both expanded under Donald Trump's watch. And I look at this approach to Russia, Ukraine.

And I can't help but wonder if Putin isn't just sitting back I can hold out because this guy is giving me every thing I want. Think about this. Russia economy is in tatters in large part because of this wa We actually have leverage.

We actually can put just a littl of economic sanction pressure on and that would hurt. But that didn't come up. The president and the vice president are saying we can just now, if you guys don't work this out, we'll just sit back.

That might make the MAGA wing ha But Putin's sort of in the driver's seat here. He is offering a carrot today, though, of trade in the potentia to help Russia's economy through proactive trade. If you combine that offer to trade with America, with Europe swearing to get off Russian oil and gas and importin American LNG gas, for instance, or restarting their nuclear prog maybe that's the trick long term but we've got Abby.

But the thing about that is that the trade off or, by the no one grudges that the president's attempt to end bloody wars that have victimized them. And of course, it's the people who suffer these wars the most Australians, etc. .

But the idea that Putin, who env rebuilding his near abroad in Eu who, by the way, denies Ukraine's existence as a sovereign state, is going to be moved off what he as a strategic objective right, regaining that foothold and frankly, weakening the Unite He calculates that's in his interest that he's going to be moved off that by a, hey, we're going to m We're going to sell more stuff to each other. It just misses his view of this Much like if you look at Israel. What's with the Israel looks at the war in Gaza as in its strategic interests?

Granted, they're Israelis who don't believe that the progress of the war right there is in its interest. So the idea of a, I don't know, redeveloping Gaza as a beach resort. Again, those trade deals don't move nat their calculations of their own strategic interests Well, and Germany put up, the, the different ways in which these two leaders talked about this call.

Briefly. I'll let you finish out our conversation here. I think the last one under Putin eliminate the root causes of this crisis, I mean, that I had it highlighte Yeah, but the trouble is, they look at Russia, it looks at the root causes of the crisis as Ukraine Well, you get a country, right, and Ukraine wanting to be to Europe as opposed to closer t which is a 20 year old battle th I mean, this is why Russia's been interf in Ukraine's elections going bac It's why they poison their leade So so if he still if he still thinks the root causes have been addres remember what his view of the ro what is the strategy here from the Trump administration?

I mean, this is really what it comes down to. What actually is it trying to ac What does it want? What is it offering?

I mean, this is not, getting two kids that are fighting to sit together in the sandbox. This is actually very important geostrategic stuff. And I, I still don't understand what it that they are trying to achieve.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I go back to what Jeff said at the at the top of the show, which I think is very interestin that they went from Trump and Putin can get on the phone and fix it to them, essentially saying, well, Trump, Putin got on the phone, this is Putin and Zelensky's pro Now, I'm sure a lot of American president have looked very much Putin's eyes and see. So this goes all the way back to George Bush, right?

Righ And somehow Putin is still reset buttons to remember that. Right? Reset buttons.

And here we are still talking ab Jim, thank you. Very great for expertise on the show tonight.