Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that the Trump administration thinks Russia is pushing for “too much” in the peace talks with Ukraine.

Vance spoke at a Munich Security Conference Q&A, where he addressed numerous foreign policy issues, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and the effort to negotiate a peace deal between the two countries. The vice president said that to end the war, President Donald Trump has been trying “to understand where the other side is coming from.” As peace talks have hit multiple roadblocks in Trump’s first 100 days in office, Vance said he isn’t giving up hope that the two countries can come to some sort of agreement.

“I wouldn’t say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution. What I would say is right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think they’re asking for too much,” the vice president said.

JD Vance says Russia is "asking for too much" in peace talks with Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/zyIIsW61Ta

— Zach Jewell (@zach_d_jewell) May 7, 2025

The Trump administration is hoping to take a step back from mediating negotiations.

“We would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another,” Vance continued. “Obviously, the United States is happy to participate in those conversations, but it’s very important for the Russians and Ukrainians to start talking to one another.”

“We think it’s probably impossible for us to mediate this entirely without at least some direct negotiation between the two, and so that’s what we focus on,” Vance added.

The Trump administration has been talking to both Russian and Ukrainian leaders for months, seeking a way to end the war. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for the third time. Some of Russia’s demands include ensuring that Ukraine will never be admitted into NATO and the recognition of its occupation of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014. Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to push for NATO membership, a request Trump said in February that Ukraine should “forget about.”

Vance said that the Trump administration has “moved beyond” pushing for a 30-day ceasefire after those talks went nowhere with Russia.

“We’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with a 30-day ceasefire and more on what the long-term settlement would look like,” he said. “And we’ve tried to consistently advance the ball.”

The United States took a major step forward in talks with Ukraine last week, signing a minerals agreement with Kyiv. The agreement provides Ukraine with continued military assistance in exchange for the United States getting access to some of Ukraine’s vital natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil, and natural gas.

Russia blasted the minerals deal shortly after it was made, mocking President Trump and saying that Ukraine “is about to disappear.”

Three Democratic governors are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee next month as they face questions about state policies that inhibit federal immigration enforcement.

The House Oversight Committee said Tuesday that Governors JB Pritzker of Illinois, Kathy Hochul of New York, and Tim Walz of Minnesota will appear on June 12 to testify about immigration enforcement in their states. As the Trump administration has promised mass deportations, Democratic officials across the country have indicated that they will not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security.

“Sanctuary policies only provide sanctuaries for criminal illegal aliens. Former President Biden created the worst border crisis in U.S. history and allowed criminal illegal aliens to flood our communities. President Trump has ended this crisis and now we have the most secure borders in decades,” House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) said.

“The Trump Administration is taking decisive action to deport criminal illegal aliens from our nation but reckless sanctuary states like Illinois, Minnesota, and New York are actively seeking to obstruct federal immigration enforcement,” he added. “The governors of these states must explain why they are prioritizing the protection of criminal illegal aliens over the safety of U.S. citizens, and they must be held accountable.”

Illinois has been a sanctuary state since 2017, when then-Governor Bruce Rauner (R) signed the Illinois Trust Act, which blocked local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement actions. In New York, state agencies are not allowed to work with ICE, and a state court ruled that neither state nor local law enforcement should hold illegal immigrants at ICE’s request.

Legislation to make Minnesota a sanctuary state has failed in recent years despite pushes from Walz and the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.

“My position on Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state boils down to who has the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws,” Walz said in 2018. “The role of law enforcement is to enforce state and local laws, not federal immigration laws, and I strongly believe that they should not do so.”

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), there are currently eleven “sanctuary states,” including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, in addition to the District of Columbia.

The hearing with the governors follows one in April, where the House Oversight Committee also questioned the mayors of sanctuary cities like Boston, Chicago, Denver, and New York.