MEZIESBLOG

Russia’s foreign minister has welcomed Donald Trump’s choice of running mate, JD Vance.

Sergei Lavrov said Kyiv’s allies “need to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons and then the war will end”.

Mr Vance fiercely opposes aid to Ukraine and has expressed doubt that the war is a major national security concern for the US. 

“I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other,” Mr Vance said in an interview in 2022.

Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has demanded it surrender huge swatches of territory and drop its aspirations to join NATO in return for a ceasefire.

Former president and deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will go on to crush the rest of Ukraine even if it accepts a truce on these terms.

Vance agrees to vice presidential debate, campaign official says

Vice president Kamala Harris and JD Vance will debate each other in the coming weeks, a campaign official has told Reuters.

Yesterday we learned that Ms Harris had asked for a debate via voicemail after Mr Vance was nominated as Donald Trump’s running mate.

Now the official says the pair will meet at a CBS-hosted event on 23 July, 12 August or 13 August.