US Vice President: Russia overestimates its successes on the front

Russia believes that things are going better on the front in the war against Ukraine than it actually is, and this has prevented an agreement on ending the war in recent months, US Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with the Newsmax newspaper.

He emphasized that at the moment neither Russia nor Ukraine is ready for peace, but the USA hopes that this will change after all.

“I think there’s a fundamental difference in expectations: the Russians tend to think they’re doing better on the battlefield than they actually are,” Vance said.

This, according to the US vice president, has made it “difficult” to reach an agreement in the past few months, despite some progress.

Vance added that despite the energetic efforts of US President Donald Trump, “the Russians and the Ukrainians are simply not at the point where they can make a deal.”

The vice president admitted that the peace settlement process has been a test for the US president’s team, and that Trump sometimes “loses patience” with both sides.

However, according to Vance, Trump’s efforts will ultimately succeed. “The only question is how long it will take,” Vance added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, touching on the war in Ukraine, constantly declares that Russian troops have the initiative and are advancing on all areas of the front. According to the Kremlin, he told Trump the same thing during their phone conversation on October 16.

Data from both Russian and Ukrainian monitoring channels, however, indicate that Russian advances in Ukraine in recent weeks have been negligible. The front line near Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka, as well as near Kupiansk, actually remains static, and the Ukrainian military is trying to advance in Sumy Oblast.

According to British intelligence, Russian forces are likely to have captured approximately 250 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in September 2025, a significant decrease from the approximately 465 square kilometers. km captured in August 2025. They note that this follows a moderate monthly decrease in the number of captured territories from June to August 2025.

The day before – before the visit of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the USA – Trump and Putin spoke on the phone and previously agreed on a personal meeting.

Trump called the conversation “productive”, noting that he will discuss its results with Zelenskyi.