US president tells reporters he needs to see ‘enthusiasm’ from both sides to end the war in Ukraine

The US is optimistic that it can end “the very brutal war” between Russia and Ukraine, Vice-President JD Vance said before a bilateral meeting with the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday.

The meeting comes less than 24 hours after the pair met in Washington. Vance said:

I want to update the prime minister on some of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine … even in the past 24 hours, we think we have some interesting things to report on.

Since there are the negotiations I won’t prejudge them, but we do feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war, to a close.