Trump shot down Vance’s proposal to send Indian troops as peacekeepers in Ukraine, claims new book

US Vice President JD Vance proposed sending Indian troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers in the war-ravaged country just days after Donald Trump assumed office as the President for a second term in January 2025.

The explosive revelation was made by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, two New York Times journalists, in their new book titled Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.

According to the authors, Vance suggested an Oval Office meeting on January 30, where senior administration officials discussed options for a peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The book claimed that Vance suggested using non-European peacekeepers to avoid the risks associated with using NATO troops.

When Vance specifically suggested India or Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump chuckled and dismissed the idea, stating, “The Indians won't do that. They won't pay for something like that”.

According to the authors, Trump claimed to have a good relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi but remarked that “the Indians do not ever pay for anything” regarding troop deployments.

Meeting on ending Russia-Ukraine war

Providing further details, Haberman and Swan said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, then-national security adviser Mike Waltz and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were also among those who attended the meeting along with Keith Kellogg, whom Trump appointed as special presidential envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

During the meeting, Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general, presented a proposal titled "An America First Plan: Trump's Historic Peace Deal for Russia-Ukraine War" in which he suggested that the US should not formally recognise Russia's claims over occupied territory but added that Ukraine would not attempt to regain the lost territory through military action.

The proposal also called for the deployment of peacekeeping troops from France, Britain, and the Netherlands to be stationed in Ukraine. At this point, the book noted that Vance opposed the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine, arguing that it would anger Russia.

While discussing non-European alternatives for peacekeeping deployment in Ukraine, Vance suggested Saudi Arabia and India.

“Vance suggested Saudi Arabia or India. Trump chuckled,” the book reads.

According to the book, Trump responded by saying: “The Indians won’t do that. They won’t pay for something like that.”

Trump told Netanyahu ‘everybody is sick of you’

The authors said Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump is based on more than 1,000 interviews and takes readers behind closed doors at the White House as a small circle of loyalists works to transform both the federal government and the presidency itself.

Among other major topics that dominated Trump’s first year in office, the authors said the US president had some strong words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.

“Everybody’s sick of you, Bibi. All the Jews are sick of you. Even the two Jews on this call are sick of you,” Trump told Netanyahu in a phone call. The other two Jews mentioned by Trump were Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.