Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) on Sunday called Russia an “aggressor” in the war in Ukraine and said someone must “stand in the middle” to “find a middle ground” in the conflict.
“Russia is the aggressor. Clearly, they’re the adversary in this particular case, but somebody has to stand in the middle and try to find a middle ground to get to a ceasefire to stop the killing,” Rounds told NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt on “The Hill Sunday.” “I think that’s where the president wants to be in this case.”
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Rounds’s comments come after a tense Oval Office meeting between President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vice President Vance on Friday, which featured shouting and finger-pointing as the president and Zelensky argued over U.S. support for Ukraine.
Following the meeting, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the Ukrainian president “is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.”
Trump has been pushing for an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, with U.S. and Russian officials meeting in Saudi Arabia last month.
The meeting resulted in blowback from Democrats aimed at the White House, with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) calling it “an utter embarrassment for America.”
“The president of the United States is a coward who is Vladimir Putin’s puppet,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said in an interview in the wake of the meeting. “The vice president of the United States is a pogue and a coward who is Donald Trump’s puppet. And so what we just witnessed was a meeting in the Oval Office between two cowardly puppets and a hero.”
In his interview on “The Hill Sunday,” Rounds said that “the only type of a lasting peace with Mr. Putin is one which is enforceable,” adding he believed “that got lost to Mr. Zelensky in the discussions, and I hope we get it all back on track again.”
