JD Vance Banned from Visiting Russia Despite Criticizing Ukraine

Former President Donald Trump's pick for running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is banned from visiting Russia despite being an outspoken Ukraine skeptic.

Vance, 39, was named by presumptive Republican Party nominee Trump as his pick for vice president for the 2024 U.S. presidential election as the Republican National Convention kicked off in Milwaukee on Monday.

The senator was banned by Russia's Foreign Ministry from entering the country in May 2023 despite his strong opposition to U.S. support for Ukraine.

"I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other," he said in a podcast interview in 2022.

In May, Vance was among nearly 50 members of Congress added to a long list of lawmakers banned from entering Russia in retaliation for U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow.

"In response to the anti-Russian sanctions regularly introduced by the Biden administration, which are intended, according to Washington's plan, to inflict maximum damage on Russia by personally affecting officials and ordinary citizens of our country, entry into the Russian Federation for 500 Americans is being closed as a countermeasure," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement at the time.

The foreign ministry added: "It is high time for Washington to learn that no hostile attack against Russia will go without a harsh response."

It isn't clear why Vance was specifically targeted by Russia in May, however on February 23, 2022, a day before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Vance published a statement calling Putin an "evil man," while simultaneously criticizing the Ukrainian government as "corrupt."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

Vance is strongly opposed to the U.S. providing aid to Ukraine. He suggested in a guest essay for the New York Times in April, titled "The Math on Ukraine Doesn't Add Up," that President Joe Biden has miscalculated how much money Ukraine would need to win the war.

"The most fundamental question: How much does Ukraine need and how much can we actually provide?" he wrote.

"Mr. Biden suggests that a $60 billion supplemental means the difference between victory and defeat in a major war between Russia and Ukraine. That is also wrong…Fundamentally, we lack the capacity to manufacture the amount of weapons Ukraine needs us to supply to win the war."

The Republican senator has also spoken in favor of Ukraine ceding some of its territory to Russia to bring an end to the war.

"What's in America's best interest is to accept Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians, and we need to bring this war to a close," Vance told CNN's Jake Tapper on State of the Union last year. "But when I think about the great human tragedy here, hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans, innocent, have been killed in this conflict. The thing that's in our interest and in theirs is to stop the killing."

Trump has said repeatedly that if reelected, he would swiftly bring an end to the war in Ukraine by speaking with Putin.

"I will have that war settled between Putin and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky as president-elect before I take office on January 20," Trump said on June 27 during a debate with Biden. "I'll have that war settled. I'll get it settled fast, before I take office."

And in January 2023, Trump said he would be successful in negotiating an end to the war "within 24 hours."

"IF I WERE PRESIDENT, THE RUSSIA/UKRAINE WAR WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED, BUT EVEN NOW, IF PRESIDENT, I WOULD BE ABLE TO NEGOTIATE AN END TO THIS HORRIBLE AND RAPIDLY ESCALATING WAR WITHIN 24 HOURS," Trump wrote at the time in an all-caps Truth Social post. "SUCH A TRAGIC WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE!!!"

The U.S. presidential election is scheduled for November 5.

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