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JD Vance has sought to defend his explosive bust-up with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. The US Vice President hit out at Ukraine's president for not being grateful enough for US military aid, catching Mr Zelensky off guard during a meeting in February between the Ukrainian leader and his US counterpart.
Mr Zelensky thanked US President Donald Trump and others nine times in the first minute of his return visit to Washington earlier this month to discuss peace talks over the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr Vance, who led the attacks at February's meeting, has since said that "sometimes people disagree".
He told USA Today: "So you ask, would I change anything? I mean, do I wish that we had had a blow up in the Oval Office in public? Not necessarily.
"But do I think that it actually elucidated some of the real issues of disagreement between the United States' side and the Ukrainian side? Yes, and I think it was useful for the American people to see.
"And I think we'll continue to have these conversations. And look, there are a lot of issues of agreement between the United States and Ukraine. There are occasionally some issues of disagreement...
"What always really bothered me about this relationship was not the Ukrainians as much as it was the American side, specifically the Democratic administration of Joe Biden."
Mr Vance was accused of deliberately engineering what became a shouting match in the Oval Office, during which he lectured Mr Zelensky on diplomacy and accused the war leader of being disrespectful.
The US Vice President said that during former US President Biden's administration, Mr Zelensky would visit the US and leave with billions of dollars in military assistance without any real goal or sense of what would be bought with the money.
He told USA Today what always frustrated him far more than Mr Zelensky was that the Biden administration had no plan on how to bring the war to an end.
Mr Vance went on to say that Washington has had "good conversations" with Kyiv since and all sides were "working for peace".
He added: "Even though we have some disagreements, we, of course, want to protect Ukraine's territorial integrity. We don't want Russia to conquer the entire country."
The Biden administration sent billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine to help the country defend itself from Russian aggression. In September last year, Mr Biden said the US would provide Ukraine with the support it needed to end the war.
Mr Trump has previously criticised the level of aid sent to Ukraine compared to Europe. He wrongly claimed in February that the US has spent over $300bn and Europe $100bn.
After February's shocking bust up, Mr Vance was lauded by Republicans such as Senator Lindsey Graham, who said he felt proud of the Vice President standing up for the US. But Mr Vance's tone now appears to have softened towards allies of the US.
Meanwhile, Russia bombarded Kyiv with drones and missiles on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 48, according to local authorities.
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